Experimental Investigation of Morel’s Method for Wind Tunnel Contractions

Abstract

Based on a numerical study of the potential flow through contractions of chosen geometry, Morel (1975) has given a method to obtain the shape of contraction which gives small adverse pressure gradients and low nonuniformity in the velocity distribution at the exit. Two contractions with area ratios of 12 and 3.464 designed using this method are investigated experimentally. It is found that there is no separation of flow, the thickness of the boundary layer at the exit is small and the nonuniformity in velocity at the exit is smaller than the predicted value.