Initial operation of ASTRC/NCKU transonic wind tunnel

The Aerospace Science and Technology Research Center (ASTRC)/National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) transonic wind tunnel is a blow down type tunnel with square test section of 600 mm x 600 mm. The tunnel was designed by FluiDyne engineering Co., USA on a turnkey base. The development history, description of the tunnel, control system, operational capabilities of the facility and results of centerline-pipe calibration are described in this paper. The ASTRC/NCKU transonic wind will provide a unique university facility for transonic flow simulation and offers a valuable resource for industrial and academic researches. A review of current and proposed research programs involving the present facility is also described. test conditions of the wind tunnel is essential to the experimentists. Therefore, the tunnel calibration is required to define the relationship of known test conditions and uncertainty of experiemntal results. The ASTRC/NCKU 600 mm x 600 mm transonic wind tunnel was proposed under the recommendation of Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (IAA)/NCKU committe in 1987. IAA/NCKU contracted with FluiDyne engineering Co., USA in March 1989 to build the tunnel for a two-year project. The tunnel was assembled and housed at ASTRC in 1993. Since that time, the effort has been toward acquiring operating experience with the facility. Also, the tunnel calibration was performed to provide a more detailed understanding of the operating charactcristics and flow qualities. The calibration program included centerline-pipe measurements, flow angularity measurements, noise/turbulence measurements and standard model tests.