Design of Flow Adjusting Device in Diffuser of Open-Circuit Wind Tunnel with Low Speed Based on CFX

Abstract

The diffuser in wind tunnel plays a vital role to improve flow field quality. Many flow adjusting devices in diffuser were studied by lots of researchers in the world to inhibit flow separation. However, most of them were applied on closed-circuit wind tunnel with high speed. It is necessary to design appropriate flow adjusting device for diffuser in open-circuit wind tunnel with low speed which was increasingly used in aerodynamic experiment. The structure of a new open-circuit wind tunnel with low speed was firstly introduced in this paper. The flow adjusting device was designed, which was composed of three parts, namely contracting cone, air guide plate and screen. On the basis of analysis model for diffuser, the influences of contracting cone, air guide plate and screen on flow field quality were respectively given by CFX simulation that was using multiple reference frames and RNG k-ε turbulence model. Case study showed that the role of single part was limited, combined effect of three parts in flow adjusting device could greatly improve quality of flow field in diffuser. The study results mentioned above are useful for designing flow adjusting device in diffuser of practical open-circuit wind tunnel with low speed.