NCAR/ATD/RTF Wind Tunnel

An article by H. Baynton describing the original wind tunnel has been scanned in here (page 1, page 2, page 3, page 4, page 5). This article probably was published in the NCAR/ATD Observer in the 1970s. (A similar article appeared in "Facilities for Atmospheric Research" #20, March 1972, pp. 22-24, published by the NCAR Facilities Laboratory.) Although the tunnel hasn't changed since then, it was moved from RL6 at 30th and Marine Street to FL1 at 3450 Mitchell Lane in Boulder and map of the flow in this new room has not been done.

The reference wind speed is now obtained using a pitot-static tube connected to a MKS Baratron Type 120AD-00010RBU barometer (S/N 92239103A). A Rotronics Model MP-1000 temperature/humidity sensor and MKS Baratron Model 1228 barometer is used to compute air density. Operation of the tunnel is now controlled by a PC running a custom program written in LabView. A Rosco Omega-XL Series XCI-1263 (similar to their current Model 1600) fog generator also is available now for flow visualization.

This tunnel has been compared in round-robin experiments by Lockhart xxxx.