Working in the wind tunnel.
Beginning over the summer of 2023, I began working as a student researcher with the Duke Aeroelasticity Group, with mentorship from Dr. Earl Dowell and Luisa Piccolo Serafim. My first project involved picking up the initial research done by John Smalley, focusing on the pressure variations found along the chord of an airfoil. The end goal of the testing is to provide data for the development of an advanced simulation software created by the Aeroelasticity group. A control surface was attached to the back of the airfoil, replicating the presence of an aileron on standard aircraft. I have spent time running numerous trials on different configurations of the wing, changing variables such as angle of attack, airspeed, and aileron deflection. Much of the process involved large amounts of troubleshooting and testing. Developing NI LabVIEW palletes, MATLAB scripts, and Arduino code have all been essential to producing interesting plots and data.
Spending time with the Duke wind tunnel has also helped me recognize the shortcommings of this particular setup. While running my experiments, I worked with several other students to redesign a more modular and intuitive mounting structure for future use. Compared to the current setup displayed above, we created a workstation with simplified connections, motor control, pressure readings, and software implementation. One of the largest tasks in the redesign was selecting the proper motor for step-change inputs in the system. Using the torque and speed requirements from our calculations, a powerful motor was chosen to provide changes to the angle of attack or control surface deflection in any flow speed. The changes can be seen in the picture below, but I am still working on more modifications to make the Duke wind tunnel more productive than ever.
