wind tunnel technique

unit 1

why we conduct experiment?

why ?
for testing a component or vehicle
design
understanding fundamental concept of
flow such as turbulence.

how it should be done ?

how ?
by proper planning and methodology

how to start ?
find the parameters required for the test

dont's
dont do experiment without a proper plan
or idea( modern computation)

parameters
for a conventional flow analysis, we depend
on n no of variables/parameters.

how dimensional analysis going to

help to find out parameter
Let us consider a
concrete situation of
one trying to study
drag for the flow
about a cylinder

What are the parameters that

govern this process?

drag of cylinder

If one proceeds without thought

,one will want to determine the
influence of each of the
parameters. First one will perform
a set of experiments varying free
stream speed and keep the other
parameters constant.One curve is
produced for Drag vs V, keeping

the same. But

note that the same experiment has
to be repeated for different values
of these parameters as well

drag of cylinder
If each curve requires about ten points for
a good definition, it is easy to see that as
many as 10,000 experiments are needed,
perhaps requiring one's lifetime?

drag of cylinder

is there is any way?

Luckily, there is a method by which the
number of such experiments could be
reduced to a minimum.
This is by determining the NonDimensional Numbers for the flow.
It is somewhat ironical that we carry out a
dimensional analysis to determine the
non-dimensional numbers for the flow

non dimensional numbers

These nondimensional numbers
involve certain
combinations of the
parameters involved
(in the case of drag
about cylinder these
are drag force, F, .

During the experiments, the

strategy is to vary only
these non-dimensional
numbers. For example, we
will see that for the drag
problem the nondimensional numbers are
the drag coefficient Cd and
Reynolds number Re

drag of cylinder
While carrying out the
experiment one need
to vary only the
Reynolds number
Instead it may be easier to
conduct the experiment for
different speeds , but still the
Reynolds number varies.
Alternately it may be the
diameter of the cylinder that
can be easily varied

drag
The second advantage of expressing the results
in terms of these non-dimensional numbers
becomes evident now.
For this experiment the results are given as drag
coefficient, Cd as a function of the Reynolds
number Re. The user calculates the Reynolds
number for his conditions and finds out what the
value of Cd is and then works out the actual
value of drag.

question?
how you deterrmine drag in your wind
tunnel?

dimensional anlaysis
method of dimension which deals with
dimension of physical quantities involves
in the phenomenon.
all physical quantities are measured by
comparison , which is made with respect
to an aribitary fixed value
length L, mass M and time T are three
fixed dimension

fundamental and derived quantities

Derived quantities are products and/or
ratios of the fundamental quantities that
exist in a system of units. For example,
the seven fundamental quantities of the SI
system of units are length, mass, time,
electric current, temperature, amount of
substance, and luminous intensity.

Dimensional analysis
Dimensional analysis deals with the
dimensions of physical quantities.
Dimensional analysis reduces the number
of variables in a fluid phenomenon by
combining the some variables to form non
dimensional parameters. Instead of
observing the effect of individual
parameters the effect of non-dimensional
parameters are studied

dimensional analysis

dimensional homogenity

methods of dimensional analysis

if he no of vaiable involved in a physical
phenomenon are known ,then the relation
among the variables can be determined by
the following two methods
rayleigh
buckingham PI theorem

rayleigh method