A wind tunnel is an apparatus that produces a controlled stream of air past a stationary test object, reversing the usual relationship of a vehicle moving through still air so its aerodynamic forces can be measured safely and repeatably. Eighteenth-century experimenters such as Benjamin Robins and George Cayley had tried spinning objects on a rotating arm to study air resistance, but the arm's own wake and centrifugal effects distorted the results; the English engineer Francis Herbert Wenham resolved those problems by building the first enclosed wind tunnel in 1871. The Wright brothers used a wind tunnel of their own design in 1901 to refine their aircraft's wing shapes, and Gustave Eiffel later built a wind tunnel in Paris in 1909 where he ran some four thousand systematic aerodynamic tests.
Facts
SignificanceThe wind tunnel let engineers hold an aircraft or model still while moving air past it under controlled conditions, replacing unreliable whirling arm tests whose centrifugal forces and wake effects had made detailed airflow examination difficult, and enabling the systematic aerodynamic testing that shaped early aviation. 1 FAQs
Have computer simulations made wind tunnels obsolete?
Simulation has reduced the demand for wind tunnel testing but has not eliminated it.
No. Advances in computational fluid dynamics have reduced the demand for wind tunnel testing, but have not eliminated it. Many real-world problems still cannot be modeled accurately enough by simulation to remove the need for wind tunnel testing. Confidence in a numerical simulation tool also depends on comparing its results with experimental data, and that data can come from wind tunnel tests.
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Source Wind Tunnel (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors
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Source Francis Herbert Wenham (Wikipedia)
Sources
1. Wind Tunnel (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia contributors, Wikimedia FoundationHistory section
Francis Herbert Wenham (1824-1908), a Council Member of the Aeronautical Society of Great Britain, addressed these issues by inventing, designing, and operating the first enclosed wind tunnel in 1871.
History section, drawbacks of whirling arm apparatus
Drawbacks of whirling arm tests are that they do not produce a reliable flow of air. Centrifugal forces and the fact that the object is moving in its own wake also mean that detailed examination of the airflow is difficult.
In Group: Wind Tunnels and Aerodynamic Test Facilities, Intro
Wind tunnel uses include assessing the effects of air on an aircraft in flight or a ground vehicle moving on land
In Field: Aerospace Engineering, Introduction
A wind tunnel is "an apparatus for producing a controlled stream of air for conducting aerodynamic experiments".
View the Source Francis Herbert Wenham (Wikipedia)
Invented By: Francis Herbert Wenham, Lead sectionQuote, Invented By: Francis Herbert Wenham, Lead section
Best known for his foundational work on the theory of flight and the invention of the wind tunnel, Wenham's research and inventions significantly influenced the development of modern aerodynamics and heavier-than-air flight.
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