Overview

For my school's science fair in 2020, I constructed an eight-foot-long wind tunnel that used a high-powered attic fan to draw air through the test area.

There are a series of grids throughout the tunnel that turns the turbulent airflow into laminar airflow.

This project was unforunately never presented at the science fair since it was canceled due to Covid-19.

Concentration Cone

The air that passed through the tunnel was funneled from a large area into a much smaller area as the air moved toward the test section.

A series of grids were spaced throughout the concentration cone, which helped to turn the turbulent flow more laminar.

Fan

For this project, I chose to use a high-powered attic fan to draw air through the wind tunnel.

The fan pulls air instead of pushing it because pulling air leads to the air flow being stretched out and thereby flattened and more laminar, whereas pushing the air would lead to it being compressed and more turbulent.

Testing was done where a fog machine was placed in front of the concentration cone, and I was able to observe the relatively smooth lines that were formed as the fog was drawn through the tunnel.