Aerodynamics Laboratory Facilities, Equipment, and Capabilities

The following facilities, equipment, and capabilities are available in the Aerodynamics Laboratory Facilities and Equipment

1. Subsonic, open-jet wind tunnel with 1.8-meter (m) by 1.8 m (6-foot (ft) by 6 ft) test section.
2. Small-scale smoke wind tunnel for flow visualization.
3. Two-DOF (degrees of freedom), large-scale, active-turbulence generator (computer controlled).
4. Three-DOF motor-driven sensor traverse system (2.4 m by 2.4 m (8 ft by 8 ft), computer-controlled).
5. A three-component, high-frequency, dual force-balance system.
6. 1.8-m- (6-ft-) diameter, motor-driven turntable (computer-controlled).
7. High-speed, pressure-scanning system.
8. Two high-speed data acquisition systems for lab use (average 64 channels per system).
9. Thermo-Systems Inc. (TSI) hot-wire and hot-film velocity sensors.
10. Pitot-static velocity probes (various configurations) and stand-alone pressure transducers (various ranges).
11. Thirteen non-contact laser transducers to measure displacement.
12. One IBM Risc 6000 workstation.
13. One Dell Precision 620 workstation (double xeon processors).
14. Extensive bridge and highway structures model inventory.
15. Bridge plan library.
16. Unique wind engineering and bridge aerodynamics reference library.
17. Extensive laboratory and field study data archives.
18. Two parallel rigid test frames for model installation.
19. Several office workstations and laptops for field data analysis.
20. Several portable data acquisition systems.
21. Numerous wind gauges, accelerometers, strain gauges, and other sensors.

Capabilities

1. Instrument design.
2. Computer simulation and analysis.
3. Structural analysis.
4. Full-scale testing and analysis.
5. Wind tunnel experiments (especially fit for bridge applications).
6. Long-term monitoring of structural and wind conditions.