Development And Improvement Of Subsonic Wind Tunnel In Universiti Teknologi Petronas (Air Flow Quality Testing)

This dissertation is compiled on the study of Development and Improvement on
subsonic wind tunnel developed in Universiti Teknologi Petronas (herein after is
called UTP). The objective of this study is to design and develop a new open circuit
subsonic wind tunnel that can operate under II m/s - 15 m/s. Basically, the project
was divided onto two phases. In Phase I, the scope of study was to cover the
literature review on theory regarding the sub sonic wind. The guidelines for the
design then were selected and compiled to engineer a new sub sonic wind tunnel that
meets the criteria given. The study in Phase I also covered the justification on fan
selection and proper contraction ratio. In Phase II, the air flow quality such as
turbulence intensity and velocity variations were investigated to verify the developed
wind tunnel. The scope of study in Phase II included the understanding of working
principle of hot wire anemometer as the tool needed to measure velocity and
turbulence intensity. The methodology of approach to achieve the objective started
from the literature review related to the airflow quality. Based on the literature
review in phase II, an experiment was conducted to determine the velocity variation
and the turbulence intensity in the test section. A constant temperature anemometer
as one type hot wire anemometer is being used throughout the experiment. The
result is obtained by using the Streamline/Streamware software. The sensor used for
the experiment was ID(55Pll-Gold Plated Miniature wire probe) sensor due to the
unavailable 2D(55P61-X wire probe) sensor during the experiment. . Based on the
results obtained, it showed that the velocity of air throughout the test section was
about 11 m/s - 12 m/s which meet the first objective of the project. The turbulence
level was quite low although exceed the constraint of less than 0.1 %. This was
basically due to the absent of the honeycomb in the settling chamber. However, the
project can be concluded to be successful as it meet one of the design constraint
which to operate under l 0 m/s - 15 m/s.