Zach Mazur, a recent graduate with a Masters of Science in Mechanical Engineering from YSU and a Bachelor of Arts in Physics from Washington & Jefferson College in Washington, PA, has finalized the research necessary to ensure the new wind tunnel in the Flow Physics Lab was ready to be used for research.

Zach explains that the project was shaped around the newly constructed research grade wind tunnel located in the Flow Physics Lab in Moser Hall. The wind tunnel has been in the works for the last few years. A design was based off of a previous NASA design with a few minor differences. Extreme flow conditioning devices are being utilized to ensure flow quality is research grade.

Zach recalls a previous thesis: Mark Blanco did a 3 dimensional model of the wind tunnel using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to ensure that the tunnel would have good quality. Based off the good results, the final construction of the tunnel began. His project included assembling the finishing touches of the tunnel and then taking measurements of the flow (the first to do so).

When constructing a wind tunnel, it is important to do a series of baseline tests to establish an operating envelope once complete. It’s imperative to assess the flow quality at as many positions of the test section as possible, the area which objects will be tested. The flow was measured at the entrance of the test section. The measurements looked at the flow uniformity in all directions, top speed of the tunnel, the boundary layer measurements and turbulence intensity.

The measurements made are the first to be completed on the wind tunnel. These measurements have characterized the wind tunnel and have shown the operating envelope of the flow and the flow quality. Extreme lengths were taken to ensure the flow quality would be good enough for use on research projects. The turbulence intensity of the flow (TI) was found to be .3% at the lowest speed regime and below .2% at all other speeds measured. All measurements were taken at four different speeds; 3, 7.5, 15, and 30 m/s.

The project was executed with a lot of trial and error over a long period of time. Gathering quality experimental data is very hard to do. Zach had to build mounts for the three different probes used in assessing the flow quality and top speed. Data was taken many times and fixtures were adjusted until he was confident that the data measured could not be any more accurate with our lab and instrument capabilities.

Zach Mazur has since graduated from YSU and is currently raising a newborn.