Design and Construction of smoke wire apparatus for wind tunnel flow visualization

• Main Author: Muhamad Nor Bin Azizi, Muhamad Nor
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Universiti Teknologi Petronas 2012
• Subjects: TJ Mechanical engineering and machinery
• Online Access: http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/5562/1/Disertation%20Muhamad%20Nor%20Bin%20Azizi%20.pdf; http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/5562/

Smoke wire apparatus is used to visualize flow pattern across a rigid body for wind tunnel application. For the flow visualization, the smoke wire can illustrate, flow separation, wake region, vortex and recirculation As continuous of previous project design, the objective is to make portable smoke wire apparatus for wind tunnel, and analyze vegetable oil as the alternative to commercial smoke liquid to producing clear image of flow visualization. The design of the portable smoke wire apparatus has been show in this report and all equipment to be used has already been determined. It was found that during this experiment, the smoke flow visualization clarity been determined by the diameter of the wire been used, the type of wire and liquid, speed of wind tunnel, oil flow rate of the liquid that coated to the wire ,voltage and current supplied to the wire. All this parameter has been analyzed theoretically and experimentally. It was best to use two coiled nicrome wire, diameter 0.32 mm coated with the commercial smoke liquid with the voltage around 8v to 11v and current at 1.2 to 2.2 ampere. The wind tunnel speed should be between 0.5m/s and 1.5m/s. The smoke generated by sunflower seed oil is denser and uniform along the wire, which is the best alternative to the commercial smoke liquid for smoke wire technique