WIND SHIFT: Dynamic Inflow and Model Manipulation

• Subject Area: Fluid Mechanics, Technical Thermodynamics and Thermal Energy Engineering
• Term: Funded in 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 573576550

ISM continues to produce forward-looking and impactful research with applications to sub-, trans- and hypersonic flows, flow control and optimisation, multiphase flows and fluid-structure interactions in aerodynamic and biological scenarios. Given the deep experience and skills of ISM’s senior staff, and the state-of-the-art measurement equipment and support structure available, the Institute is well positioned to continue to be a leader in these research areas. However, to continue this research, there is a need for a reinvented low-speed wind tunnel test facility with fully integrated digital control of the mean flow, dynamic inflow fluctuations and dynamic model placement, combined with a versatile test section layout and high flow quality. This proposal aims to empower the rich and diverse research taking place at ISM by significantly extending an existing test facility to meet a wide range of needs. Future research at ISM will move towards a tight integration of Smart Sensing, Robust Modelling and Data-Driven Strategies, referred to as Active Science. Typical implementations will include active experiments with on-the-fly data evaluation for autonomous measurement campaigns, the combination and mutual improvement of physical models and experimental data, and model-driven identification and exploration of data features. ISM researchers aim to investigate applied flow problems, such as biological flows with flapping wings, aerodynamics of bluff bodies such as wake control behind cars, and aeronautical cases with interactional wake and vortex dynamics, as well as delta wings and high aspect ratio elastic wings interacting with disturbed inflows. This research is limited by the lack of access to a wind tunnel facility with an open test section and dynamic inflow and model manipulation. Fundamental research on canonical bodies like flat plates or spheroids, focusing on basic flow physical and thermodynamic effects such as boundary layer transition and heat exchange, requires precisely set, high quality flow conditions. However, ISM’s current low-speed facility MUB lacks precise and digital control of its inflow due to sub-optimal design of the diffuser, flow turning sections, and an outdated drive system. Upgrading these parts would result in increased flow velocities, improved flow quality, and a more precise temperature control with the existing cooling system. Given the evolving needs of ISM’s research, this proposal requests funding for a complete reinvention of the existing MUB wind tunnel to introduce precise, real-time and dynamic model and flow manipulation in a suitably adapted and modernised facility with a versatile open/closed test section, improved efficiency, high flow quality, digital velocity control, and suitable measurement and data acquisition systems. This Dynamic Inflow and Model Manipulation facility, referred to here as WIND SHIFT, will facilitate state-of-the-art fluid mechanics research at ISM.

• DFG Programme: Major Research Instrumentation
• Major Instrumentation: Windkanalinstrumentierung
• Instrumentation Group: 2440 Hilfseinrichtungen und spezielle Meßgeräte für Wind- und Wasserkanäle und Anlagen des Wasserbaus
• Applicant Institution: Technische Universität Braunschweig
• Leader: Professor Dr.-Ing. David Emory Rival