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Our Lab · Home · People Projects ·
VTOL MAV |
Micro Air Vehicles Laboratory. MAV Laboratory is
located in room N341N in the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical
Engineering at the University of Arizona. The mission of the Laboratory is to
provide researchers with the space, equipment, and tools for the design,
fabrication, and testing of aircraft structures. The laboratory’s space is
3600 sq. ft. The laboratory houses the following research facilities: a wing
loading setup; composite part manufacturing equipment, test stands to
facilitate studies of power plants, navigation, and controls of aerial
vehicles. The experimental work is supported by the professional AME machine
shop (3 full-time staff) equipped with several manual/CNC
routers/mills/lathes and a composite machining laboratory.
University of Arizona Wind Tunnel. A
new closed-return subsonic wind tunnel was recently installed in the
Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Department with funding from AFOSR and
the University of Arizona. This multi-purpose, optically accessible facility
has a 3ft by 4ft test section and a maximum tunnel speed of ~80 m/s (Remax≈5x106
m-1) with mean flow uniformity better than +/-1%. A key feature of the tunnel
is the 450-horsepower two-stage pneumatically controlled pitch axial fan with
two 250 HP TEAO motors. It allows adjustment of freestream
conditions by fan rev/min or blade pitch, or both. This is particularly useful
for sensitive experiments that necessitate fine tuning of freestream
conditions. Flow conditioning upstream of the 6:1 contraction section
includes a high-aspect-ratio precision hexagonal-cell aluminum honeycomb with
six seamless high-porosity stainless steel screens.
The wind tunnel project also includes state-of-the-art
instrumentation. The majority of equipment is modular and expandable to
support a wide variety of future test needs: · 2D/stereoscopic/tomographic-capable PIV and DIC system (Lavision). · Miniaturized static pressure scanners (128 channels, Scanivalve ZOC33). · 16 channel high bandwidth signal conditioning amplifiers (Ectron Model 563HL) · 9 channel selectable low/high pass filters (Kemo
Benchmaster 21M) · 16 channel simultaneous sampling high-speed data acquisition
system (NI PXIe). · 4 channel constant temperature anemometry (CTA) system (Dantec Streamline Pro). · 5 component external balance. Micro Air Vehicles Wind Tunnel. The MAV wind tunnel facility is located in the room N221N in
the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering. The tunnel is
equipped with 7.5 HP motor powering the fan. The wind tunnel is a closed-loop
tunnel that is capable of airspeeds up to 20 m/s. The wind tunnel test
section is contained within a small room at ambient pressure to minimize
potential disturbances on the flow. The nozzle outlet is 0.35 m by 0.45 m and
it is 1.24 m away from the diffuser’s inlet. The contraction ratio is 4.5,
and the turbulence level is 0.3%. An industrial frame set is installed in the
test section (outside of the flow) to mount various experimental apparatus
including: a robotic arm R12 by ST Robotics, an aerodynamic balance and a
high-speed video system Phantom 9.1v. Forces and moments are measured by
custom-designed 6-component micro external and sting balances. The tunnel is
suited for the development and testing of small airframes, such as of
Unmanned Air Vehicles.
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