Design, Construction and Evaluation of an Oscillating Vane Gust Generator for Atmospheric Flow Simulation

The study of unsteady aerodynamic phenomena in wind tunnels is supported by gust-generating devices capable generating adjustable magnitude and periodicity velocity fluctuations a flowfield. Gusts are typically generated actively introducing moving vanes to direct the flow, or passively tailoring boundary layer growth shape tunnel. flow facility used here student-built closed-return low-speed tunnel, with test section size 750 mm × maximum speed 25 m/s. A two-vane gust generator utilizing NACA0018 airfoil sections 150 chord length was designed installed upstream section. flowfield mapped without actuation, hot wire system. tunnel exhibits spatially uniform baseline turbulence intensity 5%, steady state deficit 1 m/s vane–wake region. Upon gusting conditions at vane deflection angles up ±45°, differences 4 were attained 18 freestream oscillation frequencies ranging between Hz 2 Hz.