Design of a Continuous Flow Water Channel for Fluid Dynamics Research

Water tunnels are used for a variety of research purposes including hydrodynamic and aerodynamic studies. In order to meet the technical needs of the research topics, a water tunnel with a one square meter cross section has been designed to reach one meter per second flow rates in a continuous flow environment. The primary mode for achieving this Re = 10⁶ system is an extremely high flow rate pump combined with an ultra high efficiency flow path. The tunnel will weigh over 24,000 kg and will have a test velocity of 1 m/s. The tunnel is under construction in the University of North Carolina at Charlotte Motorsports Research facility and the expectation is that it will be operational in January of 2009.