Make a Wind Tunnel

Making a wind tunnel is a fun way to visualize air flow around specific objects such as model cars, airplane wings, boats and much more! It is also a way to find more efficient designs for specific parts that can reduce drag and improve fuel efficiency in the long run. A wind tunnel also helps us visualize what really happens when you stick your hand out of the car window and hold perpendicular or facing the ground.

PARTS

    • 3 foamboard pieces preferably 1x0.5 meters
    • Glue gun
    • Glue gun glue
    • Plexi glass
    • Black paper
    • Smoke machine
    • Motor
    • Switch
    • Wires
    • Fan blade
    • Batteries
    • Straws
    • Tape
    • Box cutter
    • Wood planks
    • Saw

Steps

Honeycomb

  1. Gather a lot of straws.
    • Straws are essential for this project because they will create the streamline effect of the smoke, this is essential to visualize good or poor aerodynamics.
  2. Cut each straw into five pieces 
    • In order to reduce waste as much as possible, it would be smart to maximize a number of straws without creating more waste and this is done by cutting up each straw into five sections.
    • After this we will be left with around 250 small pieces straws.
  3. Glue the straws together. 
    • Our goal here is to create a sort of honeycomb using the straws. in order to do so we must and glue the straws’ long sides together.
    • In the end we should be left with a honeycomb in the shape of a square approximately 15 by 15 centimeters large.

Motor base

  1. Use an RC car motor.
    • This RC car motor will provide us with the motion needed to suck the smoke through the honeycomb that we just created, towards the object we are testing.
  2. Cut out three 15 by 10 centimeters rectangles of wood blocks.
    • Use a saw to get the cleanest cuts possible.
  3. Glue these pieces together.
    • You want to create a thick piece of wood by gluing the five pieces together.
  4. Draw the outline of the motor base on the wood block we just created.
  5. Drill out the outline.
    • We want to drill out the outline through the whole block in order to create a sort of housing for the motor.
  6. Glue the motor in place.
    • We want to glue the motor in place, so it does not move forward or backwards once it gets moving.

The fan blade

  1. Determine the rotation direction of the motor. 
    • This can be done by attaching a piece of tape and running the motor and seeing which direction it turns.
  2. Attach the fan blade.
    • You need to attach it in a way that when the motor is rotating air gets sucked in rather than pushed out.
    • This is the most crucial step, and you need to make sure you got it right before you can begin testing.
    • Use glue or a screw depending on the blade model.

The tunnel

  1. Cut out four 1 meter long by 20 centimeters wide rectangles using a cutter.
  2. Cut out a rectangle 50 by 15 centimeters big in the middle of a foamboard piece.
  3. Cut out a piece of black paper and stick it on 2 different foam board rectangles covering a good part of the surface. 
    • This black paper will act as a background to visualize the white streamline effect.
  4. Glue the piece of plexiglass around the hole we just created.
    • Use either hot glue or Scotch tape to fix the plexiglass in place
  5. Glue the pieces together.
    • The goal here is to create a rectangular prism that is hollow on the inside.
    • Use hot glue on the edges of the foam board and stick them together.
    • When gluing these pieces make sure that the piece covered in black paper is facing the piece with the plexiglass window and the other is on the ground.
  6. Add lighting.
    • Glue a portable light to the roof of the tunnel

Smoke machine

  1. Place the smoke machine behind the honeycomb.
    • The smoke machine will create smoke whilst the motor is running and see if it gets sucked through in thick streams.
    • If it is getting sucked but the streams are weak and barely visible try adding more smoke and lower the motor speed.

Assembly

  1. Put it all together
    • In order to put the whole wind tunnel together and start testing we must place each piece in a specific order starting from left to right. First the smoke machine then 5 to 10 centimeters in front of it we have the honeycomb straws, then the object we are testing and finally the motor mount and motor hooked up to the battery.
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