Facilities

Low-Speed Water Tunnel

The Low Speed Water Tunnel is Dr. Lang’s main tool for researching the drag reduction action of Mako Shark Skin. The Water Tunnel has a 15″ x 30″ x 9′ test section and is capable of speeds up to 1ft/s. It has been designed to run at very low turbulence levels and also has a two dye injection system. It is currently outfitted for obtaining boundary layer measurements over a flat plate. The tunnel also includes time resolved digital particle image velocimetry system capable of capturing images at 1000fps.

Low-Speed Wind Tunnel

This open circuit wind tunnel has an 8.5:1 contraction that leads to a 16 ft long test section with cross-sectional dimensions of 12 in by 36 in. The maximum speed is over 45 m/s and the latter half the test section includes a variable positioning ceiling to create user-defined adverse pressure gradients. In addition to the boundary-layer configuration, the tunnel was designed with a second interchangeable contraction that leads to a more conventional 6 ft long test section with 30′” x 30″ in cross-sectional dimensions. The speed range is 1 m/s to 20 m/s for low Re and MAV testing. Both test section configurations have 360 degree optical access.