Pilot European Transonic Wind Tunnel: Cranfield lead NWTF group test.
Professor Simon Prince at Cranfield University led an entry into the high Reynolds number cryogenic Pilot Wind Tunnel (PETW) at the European Transonic Wind Tunnel (ETW) in Cologne. He secured EPSRC funding for a travel grant that allowed up to 10 other academic members of staff from the NWTF and outside the NWTF to participate. The testing took place over a period of a week in September 2021, and involved training by staff of the ETW. It is anticipated that the shared experience of this activity will help build a group in the UK with the capability and interest to drive the UK’s involvement with European cryogenic wind tunnel testing.
The idea is that this entry would be the first of many going forward and that the NWTF consortia would plan future test programs. This entry has proven that these group applications for access to large-scale industrial facilities can work and yield good research output, while also driving up UK testing capability.
