Named in recognition of the long-established relationship between Carleton University and Pratt and Whitney Canada (PWC), the wind tunnel gives graduate students, researchers and PWC engineers the opportunity to collaborate on leading-edge turbine aerodynamics research.
The high-speed wind tunnel is of the blow-down type with relatively short run durations of the order of 40 seconds. The Mach number at the outlet of the turbine cascade can be varied from about 0.5 to 1.2. The Reynolds number in the test section can be set independently of the Mach number through use of the ejector-diffuser assembly. The wind tunnel (commissioned in 1994) has been used extensively for profile loss measurements in the past. Various high-pressure and low-pressure turbine cascades have been examined in order to study the effects of compressibility and off-design incidence on turbine aerodynamics performance. The test section of the wind tunnel allows for three-dimensional flow measurements. Experimental investigations include pressure and temperature measurements as well as surface flow visualizations.
