National Wind Tunnel Facility, IITK

Journey so far & Its Mission

Past, Present, and Future
Dr. K. Poddar
 Presentation Overview

Introduction
Report on NWTF activities (2006 – 2008)
Projected Activities for next 3 years (2009 – 2011)
Strengthening NWTF team
Proposed HRD Plan
Proposed Academic Programs
Proposed Expansion Programs
• Experimental Facilities
• Computational Facilities
• Design & Inspection Facilities

NWTF (IITK)
 Background
 National studies coordinated under the auspices of AR&DB in the late eighties
identified a strong need for a low speed wind tunnel in India to provide Indian
Industry with adequate support in experimental aerodynamics for effective
development work. Thus, a National Wind Tunnel Facility Project (NWTF-P)
was initiated.
 NWTF was conceived as an autonomous activity at IIT Kanpur in the
academic environment, with the objective to construct, operate, maintain and
further develop the wind tunnel facility as a Users’ Facility.
 Further, due to funding constraints it was decided to implement the project in
two phases as follows:
Phase I
 Tunnel circuit, fan, motor, and drive system
 Model support mechanism, turntables, and instrumentation

Phase II
 Test section parking hall and tunnel control room
 Instrumentation and calibration rooms
 Model design, inspection, integration rooms and model shop
 Wind tunnel offices, conference room, model display room

NWTF (IITK)
 National Wind Tunnel Facility
Established in 1999 with the financial support from
AR&DB, DST, and IIT Kanpur, the National Wind
Tunnel Facility (NWTF) has unique and nationally
recognized capabilities to evaluate aerodynamic
performance of flight and road vehicles as well as
wind effects on civil engineering structures.

Special Capabilities
 Full-model testing with sting support system
 2-D model testing using turntables
 Open jet testing
Important features  Flow diagnostic using PIV & visualization
• High Reynolds Number simulation  Ground effect simulation with moving belt
• Very low turbulence  Gust and cross-wind simulation
• Interchangeable mobile test sections  ABL simulation for civil applications
• Automated measurement & control systems

NWTF (IITK)
 National Wind Tunnel Facility
NWTF is committed to take up sponsored and consultancy projects of national importance as
well as supporting academic research at IIT Kanpur.

Major contributions
 In house R&D activities through sponsored and consultancy
projects
 Interdisciplinary and Inter-departmental interaction through
support for PG Students’ Thesis and faculty R&D projects
 R&D support for National Aerospace Programs of ADA, Space Capsule Recovery Experiments
ADE, ADRDE, ARDE, DRDL, NAL, VSSC
 R&D support to Civil Engineering industry
 HRD through short courses and symposiums

Active Research Areas

Decelerator aerodynamics, unsteady and high angle
of attack aerodynamics, Low Re aerodynamics, flow
controls, ground effect on flight and road vehicles,
Automobile aerodynamics wind effect on structures, LTA on Sting Support System
virtual instrumentation
NWTF (IITK)
 NWTF Users
Academic Institutions: IIT Kanpur, IIT Delhi, IIT Bombay

ISRO: VSSC

CSIR: NAL

DRDO: ADA, ADE, ADRDE, ARDE, DRDL

CIVIL: BHEL, L&T, Gammon India, REL, PCTL, NTPC,

DVC, IJT, Alstom India, Lodha Bellissimo, etc.

Wind Energy: Suzlon

Automobile: Tata Motors, M&M

Railways: RDSO, Contransys Pvt Ltd

NWTF (IITK)
 Space Applications
Space Recovery Capsule

NWTF (IITK)
 Reusable Launch Vehicle
RLV-SVT

RLV-TVT

VSSC

NWTF (IITK)
Space Vehicles with Launch Tower

NWTF (IITK)
 Aeronautical Applications

Control surface
effectiveness study

Aerodynamic buffeting
study

NWTF (IITK)
Air-intake Mass Flow Simulation

NWTF (IITK)
Study on Aerofoil
GAW-Aerofoil LS-E2-Aerofoil

NWTF (IITK)
Aerodynamic Study on Missile Models

NWTF (IITK)
Decelerator Aerodynamics

NWTF (IITK)
Study on Ram-air Parachutes

Ram-air parachute test rig

NWTF (IITK)
Double Stacked Wagon

Config 2

Config 1 Config 3

NWTF (IITK)
Study on Thermal Power Stations
Aero-elastic Chimney and Cooling Tower

NWTF (IITK)
Civil Engineering Applications

NWTF (IITK)
 Major Ongoing R&D Projects

(1) Aeronautical
 Experimental study on Single and multi-element airfoils for RTA
 Experimental study of low Reynolds number airfoil for MAV
 Aerodynamic characteristics of RLV Ascent 1:50 lift off, 1:13 scale Ascent
and Descent, RLV 1:8 and 1:6.25 FADS
 Ground wind studies on GSLV-M3, PSLV
 Wind tunnel studies on DRDL MK-3 missiles

(2) Non-Aeronautical
 Aero-elastic model study of NDCT
 Wind tunnel study on rigid model of 81 storey residential tower
 Wind tunnel testing on rigid model of I.G. Stadium sports complex
 Aero-elastic model study of 275 m tall RCC Triple flue Chimney

NWTF (IITK)
 Tunnel Utilization

Year Wind Wind Total Tunnel effort Total project

OFF On Hours (Rs. In Lakh) amount
Hours Hours (Rs in Lakhs)
Paid Notional

2006 580 190 770 80 38 130

2007 520 230 750 90 30 150

2008 540 298 838 155 20 220

NWTF (IITK)
 Tunnel Utilization (in terms of income)

Tunnel Utilization (in tems of income)

250

200
Income (Lakhs)

150 Notional income

Actual income
100 Total project value
50

0
2006 2007 2008
Notional income 38 30 20
Actual income 80 90 155
Total project value 130 150 220
Year

NWTF (IITK)
 Tunnel Utilization (in terms of occupancy)

Tunnel Utilization (in terms of hours)

1000

800
Utilization (Hrs)

600 Wind ON
Wind OFF
400 Total
200

0
2006 2007 2008
Wind ON 190 230 298
Wind OFF 580 520 540
Total 770 750 838
Year

NWTF (IITK)
 Normalized Tunnel Utilization

Utilization efficieny

80

70

60
% Utilization

50 % of Wind ON
40 % of Wind OFF

30 %of Tunnel occupancy

20

10

0
2006 2007 2008
Year

NWTF (IITK)
 Occupancy forecast for next 3 years

Serial Organizatio Wind OFF Wind ON Total

# ns Occupancy occupancy Occupancy
(hrs) (hrs) (hrs)
1 VSSC 500 300 800
2 DRDO 650 350 1000
3 CSIR 325 175 500
4 Civil 550 300 850
5 Others 250 150 400
Total 2275 1275 3550

Projected occupancy = 80% per year for paid projects.

Projected income = Rs 236 lakhs/year (at the rate of Rs 20, 000/hr)

Remaining 20% can be utilized for in-house R&D, students’ research, and
HRD activities.

NWTF (IITK)
 Strengthening NWTF team
The following manpower distribution is required for
effective tunnel operation

Manpower Current Requirement for full fledge

strength operation (60% & above
occupancy)
Research 3 4+2
Engineers
Technical 1 3+1
Assistant
Mechanics 2+8 4+8
Office staff 2 3
Project Ass 2 4

NWTF (IITK)
 Proposed HRD Programs
Existing:
HRD programs in wind tunnel testing techniques
through short courses, symposium, and workshop
– mainly for professionals
Proposed:
HRD programs in experimental techniques using
wind tunnel covering model design, instrumentation,
measurement techniques, data acquisition & analysis,
report writing, and validation of CFD tools
- For UG & PG engineering students across
the country

NWTF (IITK)
 Proposed Academic Programs

Major: MS by Research

Minor: Experimental fluid mechanics

NWTF (IITK)
 Additional Facilities proposed

 Aerodynamic research facilities

• Low speed wind tunnels for academic research
• Annular cascade tunnel
• Supersonic and hypersonic facilities
• High speed jet, shock tube

 Open circuit wind tunnel for civil applications

 Computational facilities
 Design, manufacturing & inspection facilities

NWTF (IITK)
Various Thrust Areas of Research

 Fluid Structure Interaction

 Low Reynolds Number Aerodynamics

 Unsteady Aerodynamics
 High Speed Aerodynamics
 Wind Energy
 Active and passive flow controls

NWTF (IITK)
 Concluding Remarks

 NWTF is committed to take up sponsored and consultancy

projects of national importance as well as supporting
academic research.

 NWTF Proposes following academic programs

 Minor: Experimental fluid mechanics
 Major: MS by research

 NWTF proposes to add various research facilities in the

areas of low & high speed experimental aerodynamics

NWTF (IITK)
We Look Forward to Your
Continued Support

Thank you