9 m x 9 m low speed wind tunnel

Image of NRC’s 9 m x 9 m wind tunnel

NRC 9 m x 9 m wind tunnel

The 9 m x 9 m low speed wind tunnel facility is located on the National Research Council (NRC) campus adjacent to the Ottawa International Airport. In operation since 1970, the facility serves the aerodynamic testing requirements of government agencies, research institutes and private companies.

Major renovations were recently carried out on its fan drive, balance weigh-beam controls and data acquisition systems, as well on important mechanical components such as the cooling system and main drive shaft components.

General areas of expertise include:

  • wind tunnel testing techniques
  • wind tunnel instrumentation
  • model design and manufacture
  • customized data processing
  • computational fluid dynamics.

The wind tunnel is a horizontal closed circuit atmospheric facility with a large test section (9.1 m wide x 9.1 m high x 22.9 m long (30 ft x 30 ft x 75 ft)). It is powered by an air-cooled 6.7 MW (9000 hp) DC motor that drives an 8-bladed fan. Its speed may be varied and set at any value from 0 to 230 rpm and can be maintained within ±0.1 rpm. The maximum wind speed is about 55 m/s (180 ft/s).

Image of a Dash 8 model

Dash 8 model

Floor mounted models are supported directly by extensions to the balance turntable and in the case of surface vehicles a full scale “5-belt” moving ground system is available to enhance simulation of true on road conditions. Strut-mounted models may use two or three support struts and wind fairings are available for all struts.

These specifications provide an attractive test environment for non-aeronautical subjects such as:

  • surface vehicles
  • ground-based structures, i.e., bridges, buildings
  • oil rig platforms
  • wind turbines

A large-scale atmospheric boundary layer simulation exists and is frequently used by the wind engineering community.

Automation with LabView allows five main subsystems to be fully operated from the control-room operator's user-friendly screens: yaw drive, balance weigh-beam control system, tunnel speed control, boundary layer control system, LabView-based data acquisition and MatLab-based data reduction system.