Wind Tunnel

[roboticsguy1988]

Well, so there is one at Purdue, but it is broken from what i understand????

[Adam Y.]

Well you can do what the guys from spaceship one did and mount the thing onto the front of a suv.

[roboticsguy1988]

Originally Posted by Adam Y.

Well you can do what the guys from spaceship one did and mount the thing onto the front of a suv.

LOL, some how that doesn't sound........oh whats the word, um...............efficient. lol.

[ultramrw21]

How fast does the air need to be traveling for you to collect the data you need?
I built a small scale wind tunnel using a house fan, its max speed is about 20-25 mph. But you probably need something with some more power.

[roboticsguy1988]

Originally Posted by ultramrw21

How fast does the air need to be traveling for you to collect the data you need?
I built a small scale wind tunnel using a house fan, its max speed is about 20-25 mph. But you probably need something with some more power.

I think 25mph would be pretty slow , although it could work. IDK, what do you think Wayne???

[greencactus3]

Originally Posted by ultramrw21

How fast does the air need to be traveling for you to collect the data you need?
I built a small scale wind tunnel using a house fan, its max speed is about 20-25 mph. But you probably need something with some more power.

that means you need a couple more fans. but lotsa small fans will proly not make a smooth flow. itll have so much turbulence. cheapest way is prolly

Well you can do what the guys from spaceship one did and mount the thing onto the front of a suv.

except we all know suvs have bad aerodynamics so you want a loooong pole or sumthing to keep it away from the car or. get a ferrari or sumthing

[Collmandoman]

wire up all the included muffin fans in series~ and you can blow your robot to your regional in 1.5335 nanoseconds

[roboticsguy1988]

Originally Posted by Collmandoman

wire up all the included muffin fans in series~ and you can blow your robot to your regional in 1.5335 nanoseconds

LOL, hey theres an idea, everyone charge the batterys , LOL.

[Jeff Pahl]

There is one at Rose-Hulman in Terre Haute (or at least there was still one the last time I was on campus a couple years ago), but that's probably farther than you want to have to go.

How big a test sample and what wind speed is required will have a major bearing on finding a tunnel. You can test a scale model, it just will require an appropriate increase in wind speed.

[Adam Y.]

Originally Posted by roboticsguy1988

LOL, some how that doesn't sound........oh whats the word, um...............efficient. lol.

Maybe it wasn't an SUV but all I know is that these guys went into space using a car as a windtunnel so it has to work.

[ultramrw21]

If i remember correctly the SpaceShipOne team mounted the model to the front of a truck to test its drag. Id be pretty nervous to compete against a FIRST team that had to test the drag of their bot.

[Cyberguy34000]

I think that they need a wind tunnel because they're trying to actually build a wall-bot
(see thread below)

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...t=designs+work

[Anchi]

yea that was the 1st thign that poped into my mind. i still jsut abotu died seeing a thread with this name

[Erin Rapacki]

Originally Posted by ultramrw21

If i remember correctly the SpaceShipOne team mounted the model to the front of a truck to test its drag.

Many things are tested by being mounted on top of SUVs and trucks. Testing tensions and forces is possible by (as simply) attaching a force guage - to a string - to the item being tested. You could also mount a video camera up there too. When determining airspeed keep in mind that if you are facing a headwind (which is preferred) you add the speed of the car + the speed of the wind. [ex: 5 mph headwind + 30 mph car speed = 35 mph airspeed] Who needs a wind tunnel when you have the whole outdoors?!

[russell]

A robot that flies would not be possible to build within the rules unless you are talking about a hovercraft. A hovercraft would be reasonably easy this year if I am interpreting the rules right. The biggest problem (besides not getting any traction, and dificulty of control) would be generating enough air flow to get it to hover. You would need to build an air pump, and it is unclear to me whether that is allowed. There is no way the compressor can handle the volume of air necessary for making a robot hover properly.