Experimental Confirmation on the Theoretical Model for the

Velocity Profile in a Rectangular Wind Tunnel

Goce Talev, PhD candidate
Department of Civil and Transport Engineering,
Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)
Goce.Talev@ntnu.no

Arild Gustavsen, Professor

Department of Architectural Design, History and Technology
Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)
Arild.Gustavsen@ntnu.no

Jan Vincent Thue, Professor

Department of Civil and Transport Engineering,
Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)
Jan.Thue@ntnu.no

KEYWORDS: CFD Simulation, Measurements, Wind Tunnel, Velocity profile

Summary:
A new open-loop, low-speed wind tunnel has been designed and constructed, at the Norwegian University of
Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim Norway, in order to determinate the convective mass transfer
coefficient. It has a working section of 0.45 m wide, 0.3 m high and 1 m long with maximum wind speed of 5m/s
under typical operating conditions. The design was specially constructed by a need to provide a uniform air flow
without excessive turbulence and to verify its adequate influence of the simulated external boundary layer on the
local convective mass transfer coefficient. This paper presents the results of longitudinal velocity measurements
in an empty tunnel using a Pitot-static tube without honeycomb at the inlet, as well as flow characteristics. The
measurements of the mean velocity were found to compare well with a computational fluid dynamic (CFD) tool,
FLUENT.

1. Introduction
Large amounts of moisture accumulate in the building construction, e.g. due to condensation or leakage of liquid
water from either the outside or inside, defects or other problems may arise. This may lead to damage to the
construction such as decay of wood, corrosion of metals, degradation of binders and adhesives, swelling of
materials, reduced frost resistance etc. Wet or even humid constructions may have a noticeably larger heat loss
than they would have had if they were dry.
Humidity and temperature are important comfort factors. Many health-related problems in the indoor
environment can be associated with high indoor humidity. High humidity can also contribute to the growth of
biological agents such as fungi (OReilly et al. 1998). Further, low humidity contributes to dry mucous
membranes, which in turn can make the nose and throat feel scratchy, lead to nosebleeds, make throat and nasal
membranes more susceptible to chemical and other irritants, and continue to susceptibility to viral infection.
Ventilation with fresh air may be a way to improve the problems of high indoor humidity, but ventilation
requires energy to condition the air and run the fans of the ventilation systems. So there is an interest in
designing buildings for suitable balance between moisture supply and required ventilation.
To be able to accurately simulate and predict heat, air and moisture flows in buildings there is a need for detailed
knowledge regarding the building envelope, building installations and usage, and the boundary conditions. In
particular, transient calculation of moisture transfer requires knowledge of the convective moisture transfer
coefficients and the moisture buffering properties of building materials, furniture and fixtures.
Boundary conditions are represented by defining a transfer of thermodynamic property (flux) between these
walls and the air flow, or by defining a fixed state at the wall. In order to model the interaction between the wall
(state) and the fluid (state) a transfer coefficient is often used, know as a friction coefficient, heat transfer
coefficient or mass transfer coefficient. This transfer coefficient is in fact a modelling assumption in itself.
Determination of the convective mass transfer coefficients as a function of the exterior condition as well as
material properties in the specimen is a big scientific challenge. New better knowledge about the convective
mass transfer coefficients and their application on the moisture buffering effects of building material is expected
to be provided.
Thus, based on the above discussion, to be able to predict the indoor temperature and relative humidity by
numerical simulations there is a need for more experimental research on the buffering effects of materials used in
buildings, and the boundary conditions.
A new open-loop, low speed wind tunnel with a unique design has been constructed at the Norwegian University
of Science and Technology (NTNU), intended to allow testing of different building materials under a wide range
of flow conditions. The primary goal of the wind tunnel design was to provide the experimental information of
the convective mass transfer coefficients as a function of the exterior condition and material properties of the
specimen. In order to carry out desired measurements, the wind tunnel must meet the following requirements:
The velocity profile through the test section should be as near as possible to a parallel steady flow with
uniform speed, with minimal boundary layer thickness along the surface
Turbulence intensity should be as close as possible to zero to allow easier comparation of the results,
and to avoid velocity fluctuations within the wind tunnel. As a desired goal, the turbulence intensity
should be as small as possible.

2. Wind Tunnel Design

The design requirements of the wind tunnel were base upon experience gained from the previous research work
of Talev et al. (2006). Most of the detailed wind tunnel design work was been described by Barlow et al. (1984),
Stran (1984), and Bell and Metha (1988). The design was a result of the need for obtaining a flow in the test
section that is as near as possible to a parallel steady flow with uniform speed through the test section without
excessive turbulence. It was judged that constructing an open loop circuit wind tunnel would be the most
economical solution to control the boundary condition of the air in order to provide a value of the convective
moisture transfer coefficients. The wind tunnel is made of several distinct sections, the settling chamber, the
contraction cone, the test/working section, the diffuser and the fan. Several considerations have to be made in
order to achieve a wind tunnel with the wanted properties. Below is brief explanation of the various parts and
considerations done as building the wind tunnel. The configuration of the wind tunnel is shown in Figure 1.

2.1 Settling Chamber

The settling chamber has the largest cross section of the wind tunnel. It contains an entrance section (bell-mouth
inlet), a hexagonal cell-aluminium honeycomb and screens in order to achieve the low-turbulence characteristic
as well as straightened of the desired airflow. It is worth to mention that the honeycomb and the screens were not
installed in the settling chamber during the experimental measurements presented in this paper.

2.2 Contraction Cone

A large volume of air with low velocity from the settling chamber is moving toward the contraction cone where
the cross section is reduced and the air velocity increased. The design of the contraction cone was based on a
fifth order polynomial contraction cone developed by Bell and Metha (1988). The design was confirmed by CFD
simulations (Fluent 2006); the results of these are not presented here. The primary function of the contraction
cone is to make the path of the air entering the test section more symmetrical and to erase the memory of the
return flow. The contraction ratio is 8:1.

2.3 Test Section

A one-meter long test section was designed to produce an external flow along the test section floor. The wind
tunnel floor and roof are made of plywood and the side walls of the test section are made of Plexiglas. The low
thermal conductivity and capacity of the plywood structure leads to good insulation between the external and
internal part of the wind tunnel. In addition very stable temperatures on the bottom of the wind tunnel and in the
free air stream are found during the measurements. However, the development of thermal boundary layer is not a
subject of this paper. The test section has a rectangular shape, with an area of 0.135 m2 that results from a 0.3 m
height and 0.45 m width. The side walls are parallel and have very smooth surface. The Plexiglas walls enable
access and inspection of the model and measurement probes. At the top plate there are slots enabling horizontal
and vertical traversing of measurement equipment, such as a Pitot tube. Access to this section is achieved
through a wide door on the left side of the tunnel.

2.4 Diffuser
Diffuser is the longest section of the wind tunnel where the velocity of the airflow is reduced with as little energy
loss as possible by flowing into an increasing cross-sectional area along the axial direction of the wind tunnel.

2.5 Fan
The Fan is an axial-ventilator type ASB, manufactured by Nordisk Ventilator Co., Denmark. The pitch angle of
the fan blades can be continuously regulated manually. The housing is made of the steel and connection to the
wind tunnel is made in order to avoid any vibrations.

FIG. 1: Figure of the designed wind tunnel with dimensions.

3. Methods
The wind tunnel design was tested by performing wind profile measurements along a vertical line located in the
middle of the wind tunnel 50 cm from the test section entrance. The wind profile was compared to the design
simulations. The measurements were carried out for velocities of about 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 m/s, see below. Average
and integrated velocities have been used to determine the mass-flow-inlet value (used in the simulations). The
arithmetic average velocity was provided as a ratio between the measured velocity and number of measurements,
see Eq. 1. The integrated velocity has been provided from the integration method over the length of the profile,
see Eq. 2. The mass-flow rate was found from Eq. 3.
n
u1 + u 2 + + un u
U av = = i (1)
n i =1 n

n
( xi xi 1 ) ui + ui1
UI = (2)
i =1 d 2
G = A U (3)
ui represents the values of the sample velocities and n is the number of measurements. xi is the local position.
The mass-flow rate G (kg/s) is calculated as a product of the density (kg/m3), air velocity (Uav or UI) and cross
section area A. An air temperature of 20C and relative humidity of 30% was measured during the
measurements. A density of 1.2 (kg/m3) was therefore used, according to Hagentoft (2001).

3.1 Experimental Studies

The experimental work was conducted for air velocities up to 5m/s. The air flow was controlled by frequency
regulation of the axial fan. The wind tunnel was placed in a climatic room with a constant temperature of 20 1
C. Air enters into the wind tunnel from the surrounding side of the settling chamber (bell-mouth inlet), passes
through settling chamber, arrives to the test section and continues to the diffuser which is connected to the fan.
The uniformity of the free stream was investigated by measuring the mean velocity profile using a Pitot tube and
a micro-manometer. The Pitot probe was traversed vertically across the test section at a position corresponding
to the centre point of the test section, i.e. 50 cm downstream in the test section. At each measurement location,
the velocity was measured for one minute. The output electrical signal of the manometer was transferred to a PC
through the LABVIEW program (NI, 2007).

3.2 CFD Simulations

GAMBIT 2.3.16 has been used as a pre-processor to create the wind tunnel model and to construct the
computational domain. A two and three-dimensional structure of the wind tunnel has been chosen. FLUENT
6.3.26 (Fluent, 2006) was used to compute the velocity field through the test section of the wind tunnel. A
laminar viscous model with no-slip along the upper and lower walls of the wind tunnel section was selected. Air
was selected as a fluid, and the properties calculated for an atmospheric pressure of 1 atm. At the exit of the
diffuser the mass flow was set, with the flow direction normal to the boundary. The convergence criterion of the
velocity in x- and y-direction, continuity and energy equations were selected on the absolute criteria of 10-5. The
solution was initialized and iterations of 200 50 were required.
Figure 2 shows the mesh for the test section for one of the cases that that was analysed. The number of elements
in the vertical direction is equal to 30. Cases were also simulated where the number of element in the vertical
direction was 40 and 60. Both 2D and 3D analyses were performed. In the horizontal direction 50 nodes were
used in all cases. In the third direction, in the 3D simulations, 50 nodes were used.
FLUENT solves the governing equation by a finite-volume formulation on a structured, non-orthogonal
curvilinear coordinate grid system using a collocated variable arrangement. SIMPLE was used to solve the fluid
flow which is described in a set of algebraic equations which are solved using a line-by-line traditional matrix
algorithm, accelerated by an additive-correction type of multi-grid-method and block correction. Based on the
analysis, a laminar flow solver is used to compute the air flow inside the test section of the wind tunnel.

FIG. 2: Test section mesh (2D) for the cases with 30 and 60 nodes in the vertical direction.
4. Results and Discussion
Figures 3 to 7 show the various wind profiles for different wind velocities, for velocities between about 1 and 5
m/s, where the actual wind velocity can be seen from the figures. The abscissa shows the air velocity (in m/s)
and the ordinate display the local position (in millimetres) in the wind tunnel test section. The floor of the test
section is numerated 0.
The mesh elements are chosen to be closely spaced in regions of strong gradients i.e. near the wall regions where
the velocity variation reaches its maximum. Mesh grading of 1.2 was used both for 2d and 3d models.
The simulations were an essential part of this research because they provided theoretical values to compare to the
velocity measurements. The numerical simulations were also used, in the fist place, to design the wind tunnel
with the desired properties.
In the simulations, the specific mass-flow rates used as boundary conditions were calculated from the measured
velocity profile in the middle of the test section (the profiles presented in the figures below), according to Eq. 3.
Because the wind velocity in the middle of the test section will be larger than the velocity close to the walls, the
mass-flow rate based on this velocity will be somewhat larger than the actual mass-flow rate. This can be seen in
the Figures, where the simulated results are slightly larger than the measured results.
The figures have in common that the 3D simulations show a more uniform profile that more closely resemble the
measurements in the middle of the tunnel, than the 2D simulations. The difference between the 2D and 3D
simulations is larger for the highest velocities. Close to the wall both 2D and 3D simulations seem to compare
well with the measurements, except for small velocities (close to 1 m/s), however further investigations is
needed here. Better agreement between measured and simulated results at lower air speed are expected after
installing a hexagonal cell-aluminium honeycomb and screens in the settling chamber. All mesh resolutions
seem to give comparable results.

FIG. 3: Comparison of velocity profile between calculated and measured data at 1.2 m/s.
FIG. 4: Comparison of velocity profile between calculated and measured data at 2 m/s.

FIG.5: Comparison of velocity profile between calculated and measured data at 3 m/s.
FIG.6: Comparison of velocity profile between calculated and measured data at 4 m/s.

FIG.7: Comparison of velocity profile between calculated and measured data at 5 m/s.
5. Conclusion
The purpose of this research work was to evaluate the low-speed wind tunnel to verify its adequacy for structural
analysis applications as well as to simulate the velocity profile at the centre of the test section, i.e. 50 cm
downstream in the test section. Measurements of the velocity in the empty wind tunnel showed a uniform field.
In order to have confidence in the results from such simulations, validation is required. The CFD simulations
showed quite good agreement with the vertical velocity profiles which were measured by Pitot-static tube. 3D
simulations compared better to the measured results than 2D simulations.
The new designed tunnel at NTNU is, therefore, a very good device to provide parallel steady flow with uniform
speed through the test section without excessive turbulence.
Future work will consider the evaluation of the flow condition on the value of the convective moisture transfer
coefficients and their application in the buffering moisture effects of the building materials. In addition, the
turbulence intensity profile will be also subject of further work after installation of a hexagonal cell-aluminium
honeycomb and screens in the settling chamber. Comparation between the wind tunnel results and boundary
layer condition observed for real building will be carried out after installation of the honeycomb and screens in
the settling chamber of the wind tunnel.

6. References
Barlow J.B., Rae W.H., and Pope A. (1984). Low-Speed Wind Tunnel Testing, 3rd edition, John Wiley
ISBN 0-471-55774-9.
Bell J.H. and Mehta R.D. (1988). Contraction design for small low-speed wind tunnels, Department of
aeronautic and acoustics, Stanford University.
Fluent 2006. FLUENT 6.3 User's Guide, Fluent Inc.
Hagentoft, C.E. (2001). Introduction to Building Physics, Studentlitteratur, Lund, Sweden ISBN91-44-01896-7.
NI (2007). LABVIEW 8.2. National Instruments.
OReilly J., Hagan P., and Gots, R. and Hedge, A. (1998). Keeping buildings healthy. How to monitor and
prevent indoor environmental problems. John Wiley Sons, INC., New York, USA ISBN 0-471-29228-1
Stran R. L. (1984). Experimental Investigation and Mathematical Modelling of Momentum, Heat and mass
Transport in Some Turbulent Flows, Institute of Applied Mechanics, University of Trondheim, NTH, Norway
ISBN 82-7152-070-9.
Talev G., Gustavsen A. and Nss E. (2006). The influence of air velocity and transport properties on the
surface mass transfer coefficient in a rectangular tunnel theory and experiments Presented in IEA, ECBCS,
Annex 41in Lyon, France.