The Wind Tunnel Laboratory is used to model the wind flow effects over structures and bluff bodies. The aerodynamic properties of scaled models are studied. Students from Civil Engineering, as well as from other Departments, use this facility as part of required work in their curriculum. On occasional basis, students registered in INGE 4016 – Fluid Mechanics Lab, use this facility. They design and then perform an experiment each time they come. The wind tunnel has been adapted for uniform velocity profile studies as well as for boundary layer velocity profiles. The facility is also available for research and service to the community. It is also available for science fair experiments requiring the wind tunnel for their work.
The laboratory is divided into two rooms: the working or testing room, and the machine room. The testing room has a working surface area of 378 square feet. This area is an enclosed air-conditioned room in which the 3 ft. by 3 ft. cross section wind tunnel is available for model testing. One computer or an android tablet is used to digitally operate the wind tunnel in a range velocity between near zero to fifty miles per hour. An anemometer is also connected to the digital system to measure the reference wind velocity which is controlled by a voltage regulator equipment connected to the fan motor. This system also has available a pressure measurement system that joined with Pitot tubes can provide the velocity profile at many locations inside the wind tunnel. A Helium Bubble Generator can be used for flow visualization. The pressure sensors system can also be connected to the digitally controlling system for instantaneous multiple pressure measurements, then perform the data collection and reduction. In recent years an in-house digitalized force balance system was developed for measurement of the total aerodynamic Drag and Lift forces acting on the bluff body. The torsional effect due to nonsymmetrical body to wind direction can be obtained too. For very special experiments, a Hot-wire anemometer system is available for turbulence studies using one direction (x), two directions (x-y) or three directions (x-y-z) sensors at a given location. Other general equipment includes barometers, digital temperature, humidity and dew point meters, and Pitot tubes with differential manometers.
The meteorological stations network of the Civil Engineering Department was significantly affected by Hurricane Maria in September 2017 and it is under development again thanks to some of the insurance reimbursement the university has received. Its central computer will be located in the Wind Tunnel Laboratory again. The continuously recorded 5-minute data collected at seven stations located throughout Puerto Rico will be received by this computer as part of a research effort between the UPR and emergency management agencies. Previous historical collected data has been analyzed and is available in the web at the MOODLE.uprm.edu system. Data from stormy events over Puerto Rico has been used in courses such as INCI 4138, 4145, 5006, 5008, and 6116 as real case studies.