1. BEng/BSc Final Year Project Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering Wind Tunnel Design Salim Alkindi Course Code: CEB, Student ID No. 351164 Supervisor: Mr H.Parchizadeh, Moderator: Dr Y. Liu Introduction The project requires the design and implements of Wind Tunnel Model. The wind speed the tunnel should be measured and displayed. Also it is required to have measurement of the forces exerted on a model inside the tunnel. What is a Wind Tunnel? A wind tunnel is a research tool used in aerodynamic research. It is used to study the effects of air moving past solid objects. The object inside the tunnel is connected various instruments that measure and record the aerodynamic forces upon it. It is research tool widely used by automobile and aeronautical manufactures and motorsport teams. Functionality + Drag or Lift Forces measured using strain gauges which are put in unbalanced bridges. + An amplifier and an ADC converter converts the voltage caused by the unbalanced bridges then send it to the microcontroller. + 8051 Microcontroller gets data from instrumentation and displays it on the LCD. Project Aims + Measure the wind speed inside the wind tunnel + Measure the Drag and the Lift forces on the model inside the tunnel + Display the results on an LCD 2009 Location: An.g A0.7 Why are they used? The aerodynamic properties of vehicles are important for numerous reasons. A vehicle that is not very aerodynamic will cause large amounts of drag. This affects the acceleration, speed (even fuel economy!) and down force of the vehicle.

2. BEng/BSc Final Year Project Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering Wind Tunnel Design Salim Alkindi Course Code: CEB, Student ID No. 351164 Supervisor: Mr H.Parchizadeh, Moderator: Dr Y. Liu 2009 Location: Ann. A0.7 PWM driving the Fan Pulse-width modulation ( PWM ) of a signal or power source involves the modulation of its duty cycle, to either convey information over a communications channel or control the amount of power sent to a load. In this Wind Tunnel, three PWM waveforms are generated from the microcontroller to give three different speeds to the fan. Further Development As a further development to this project, a good addition would be using full-bridge strain gauge circuit which gives more sensitivity to the system. Moreover, connecting the microcontroller to the PC using a serial port so the user can read the measurements in numerical and graphical form and control the fan using the PC. Strain Gauges Strain gauges are frequently used in mechanical engineering research and development to measure the stresses generated by machinery. Aircraft component testing is one area of application, tiny strain-gauge strips glued to structural members, linkages, and any other critical component of an airframe to measure stress. In the Wind Tunnel , two strain gauges are used on two beams. Software Side The software written for this project is in C programming language consists of three main parts: + Control ingFan using PWM. + Reading the 8bits coming from the ADC + Displays the Results on the LCD Strain gauge Buttons to control the speed Fan 8051 Microcontroller LCD