Numerical simulation of flow field inside the low-speed wind tunnel

In this paper, the versatile wind tunnel being built in Shanghai Jiao Tong University is taken as the research object. Due to the unique features of the wind tunnel, CFD method is employed to simulate the viscous flow field in the entire wind tunnel for the first time. Muiltiple Reference Frame(MRF) model is used to handle the flow field at the fan section. To obtain accurate results, the damping and protective nets are included. The computed volume flow rate approximates the designed value by the empirical design, while the pressure losses are partly in agreement with the computed results of empirical formulas. The numerical result reproduces the flow phenomena, such as flow separations so as to make it clearly how to improve the performance of wind tunnel. The change of flow field caused by non-axiality in the wind tunnel is investigated, the results show that small change of axiality has little effect on its flow characteristics. CFD simulation has enlightening significances and practical values in wind tunnel aerodynamic design.