TTU Working To Set Up Wind Tunnel At Crossville Location

Tennessee Tech working to set up its new large low-speed wind tunnel at its Crossville location after receiving it last week.

The TTU Foundation purchased some four acres of land and existing structures in Crossville to be used for both research and instruction. Mechanical Engineering Assistant Professor Ahamd Vaselbehagh said the tunnel will allow researchers to test the aerodynamics of different fluid mechanics in aircraft.

“So you cannot go ahead and build that aircraft in real scale and test that,” Vaselbehagh said.”So what you do is you design and build a smaller scale of that aircraft, you put it in the wind tunnel, and you test that.”

Vaselbehagh said the tunnel has a 500-horsepower fan and a 10-foot-by-10-foot-by-23-foot test section with wind speed capabilities of 60 meters per second. He said Tennesse Tech is just one of the few schools in the nation to have a large wind tunnel like this in use.

Vaselbehagh said this will help students get hands-on learning experience, especially as the university launches its new aerospace program. In addition to Tennesse Tech students, Vaselbehagh said the wind tunnel will be mutually beneficial to the community as a whole.

“Because the aerospace industry is moving into the state of Tennessee and into this region,” Vaselbehagh said. “And this facility is definitely something that we can share with them.”

Vaselbehagh said because the tunnel is so large, he estimates it will take about one to two years to put together.