THE SIMON OSTRACH EXPERIMENTAL FLUID MECHANICS LABORATORY
The Case Wind Tunnel is an experimental facility within the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Case Western Reserve University. The tunnel recently underwent a major reconstruction effort during which all of its features, including flow quality, instrumentation, operability, flexibility, and noise and vibration levels, were significantly improved. The tunnel now provides a very low freestream turbulence level, making it suitable for highly sensitive boundary-layer-stability experiments that require excellent flow quality. The tunnel is also designed to be completely modular. This allows a variety of different experimental configurations to be realized, greatly extending the tunnel’s functionality.
The wind tunnel was originally constructed in the late 1940s as part of the Propulsion Laboratory that was located on the present site of Case’s Glennan Building. Upon the construction of the Glennan Building, the tunnel was moved to the second-floor fluid-mechanics laboratory, where it is still located. The facility was used sporadically through the 1960s and 1970s. Prior to its reconstruction, it was last used in 1981 by former Proffesor Eli Reshotko and Leon Leventhal to perform an important boundary-layer-stability experiment. Upon his appointment at Case in the fall of 2000, Prof. White and a team of undergraduate and graduate students, with the help of the Case Lab Services Shop, replaced the entire upstream half of the wind tunnel, rebuilt the drive section, and installed a new drive motor. The new upstream portion provides the incoming flow treatment necessary to produce a low freestream turbulence level. The improved drive section and motor increase the tunnel’s maximum speed while reducing noise and vibration levels. With these improvements, the tunnel now supports research of the highest quality. Renovations and improvements are continuing with funding from an Air Force Office of Scientific Research DURIP award.
Recently, the wind tunnel has been joined by a new facility, the Icing Physics Flow Laboratory. Details about the Flow Lab may be found here.
Support for the renovation of the facility, including costs of the reconstruction and the purchase of new instrumentation, was generously supplied by the Case Alumni Association.