Our Facilities

The National Wind Tunnel Facilities cover low speed, transonic, supersonic and hypersonic speeds across all sectors including Aerospace, Automotive, Civil, Rail and Environmental. Facilities are available to industry and academic users.

Atmospheric Boundary Layer (ABL)

University of Birmingham

Designation:

Open-circuit tunnel

Test Section Size:

2m square working cross-section & 14m long working section
Current ABL length scale of 1:300

Maximum Flow Speed:

Maximum freestream wind-speed of approximately 10m/s

TRAIN rig

University of Birmingham

Designation:

Low Speed, Train rig

Test Section Size:

The overall length of the facility is 150 m with a 50 m long test section.
1/25th for rail vehicle testing, but larger road vehicle models can be used up to 1/10th scale.

Maximum Flow Speed:

Model speed - up to 80 m/s.
Propulsion system – two rubber catapults, one at each end of the rig.

Aeroacoustic

University of Bristol

Designation:

Low Speed, Aeroacoustic

Test Section Size:

Anechoic chamber: approximately 7 x 4.5 x 3.5m
High-Speed nozzle: 0.6 x 0.2m maximum speed 100m/s
Medium-Speed nozzle: 0.6 m x 0.4 m; maximum speed 60m/s
Low-Speed nozzle: 0.6 m x 0.755 m; maximum speed 40m/s
Jet: 1.5inch diameter; maximum speed 1.4 Mach

Maximum Flow Speed:

Low speed nozzle: 40m/s
Medium speed nozzle: 60m/s
High speed nozzle: 80m/s
Jet:1.4Mach