Guild for Using My Wind Tunnel

Using different sensors, students can understand the wind speed in the tunnel along with the lift and drag on the object in the test chamber. We also added smoke to provide a visual of how wind moves around an object.

Almost all of the parts are already included in the wind tunnel. You only need to bring some way to cause smoke; examples of this are a fog machine or dry ice.

We implemented an access point on top of the wind tunnel for students to add objects to the test chamber. The access point is on top of the wind tunnel with a cut-to-fit piece extruding from the lifting panel. This is used to plug the test chamber when in use. Be careful when plugging with the access panel; it can be difficult at times.

To measure the forces on the object, we need to mount it to the sensors via a brass rod. This brass rod can be found in the center of the test chamber exuding from the bottom.

Two different sets of electrons are used in the tunnel that needs to be plugged in for it to function so plug in the power cord for the fan and the power cord for the electronics.

The fan has three different wind speeds for students to test with, which can be switched from a switch extruding from the fan. Next is the more complicated side of the electronics: the sensors that students use to understand the wind speed in the tunnel along with the lift and drag on the object. Luckily, we added a display to show these values, but you must correctly zero out the sensors before turning on the fan. This is done with a button to the left of the display, but be careful the wires are a bit fragile.

You must have supplies such as a fog machine or dry ice to build up smoke. A Home Depot bucket with tubes coming out of it should be included in the project. Connect these tubes to the wind tunnel before adding your smoke to the Home Depot bucket. It should just slide right in.

For a fog machine, there is a connection point at the bottom of the Home Depot bucket. You will need to connect the fog machine to this point. Then, close all the other valves and let the fog machine run. After some time, open the valve connecting to the wind tunnel, and boom, smoke. A similar process is used for things like dry ice, except instead of connecting to the bottom of the Home Depot bucket, keep the connecting point closed with a PVC head. Instead, open the Home Depot bucket and add the dry ice directly inside. Then it should be the same from there. Just open up the valve, and boom, smoke.