Re-design of a drive system for a low-speed wind tunnel

The Thermal Systems Lab at the Texas Tech University Mechanical Engineering Department has an instructional wind tunnel. An improvement was made to the drive system of the tunnel so that the average test section velocity would increase. This involved the design and manufacture of a 2 ft. diameter fan as well as some modifications to the tunnel. The results were a 21% increase in the efficiency of the drive system and a 19 mph increase in the test section velocity.