Wind Tunnel Instrumentation and Facility Automation Workshop

Date:

10th September 2025

Location:

University of Surrey

Organisation:

University of Surrey

Host(s):

Dr Dave Birch and Dr Paul Hayden

Aim of workshop:
To share with wind tunnel operators, users and customers the state-of-the-art in wind tunnel systems automation, including facility operation, instrumentation calibration and use, safety systems and integration. The aim is to provide a case study in increasing facility loading and efficiency relevant to small to medium-scale wind tunnels.

Large, high-TRL wind tunnel facilities are often operated around-the-clock with staff if three shifts. For small- and medium-size facilities (including university wind tunnels), this would not be tractable. However, with an appropriate balance of automation and remote operation (and carefully planned safety systems),  it is possible to keep a medium-scale facility operating around-the-clock as well. In this way, facility loading can be significantly increased without a significant increase in resources.

At the University of Surrey, the unique operating conditions of the EnFlo wind tunnel often lead to extremely long experimental time scales. To adapt to these conditions and ensure consistency and quality in measurements, a high degree of experimental automation has been implemented. This includes monitoring and recording of metadata, facility and model control, instrument calibration, measurement, data quality control (on-the-fly ‘bad point’ rejection and repeat), data storage/retrieval- and, perhaps most importantly, the multi-layered safety systems that protect laboratory users from the inevitable hazards arising.

The purpose of this workshop is to share best practice in facility and experimental automation, and to demonstrate how these automated systems can work.

Target Audience:
This workshop is suitable for technical specialists in wind tunnel operations, management and planning- including advanced users of facilities and common optical, force and pressure instrumentation hardware.

This event is free to attend for academic researchers working at a UK University. The fee for industry and academics from non-UK Universities is £150. Lunch and refreshments will be provided. All attendees are responsible for personal travel expenses.

The event will take place at the University of Surrey from 8.30am to 5pm.

Registration opens 1st May.

Schedule:

8:30 – 9:00          Tea & Coffee, welcome and reception 

9:00 – 9:05          Introductions and overview

9:05 – 9:25          Context: the EnFlo atmospheric wind tunnel & its unique challenges

9:25 – 10:15        Overview of laboratory systems

• Tunnel control
• Environmental monitoring & RS-485 sensor network
• LabVIEW environment
• Data quality assurance

10:15 – 10:45     Tea, coffee & networking

10:45 – 12:00     Automating calibration and measurement

• Seeding
• LDA
• PIV and ongoing challenges
• Pressures & probes
• Tracer gases, concentration measurement and FFID

12:00 – 12:05     Conclusion and overview of afternoon activities

12:05 – 13:30     Lunch

13:30 – 16:30     Laboratory demonstrations and exercises

16:30 -17:00       Discussion and close