Design and performance of the aeroacoustic wind tunnel in sustech

The aeroacoustic wind tunnel at Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) is a new facility for studies of flow mechanisms, noise reduction methods, and aerodynamic design. This wind tunnel is operated at low Mach numbers and low-to-moderate Reynolds numbers with low turbulence intensity levels. The paper discusses the design criteria and techniques adopted to achieve the requirements on the flow and acoustic fields, e.g. flow uniformity, turbulence intensity, angularity, maximum flow speed, background noise level, and cut-off frequency. There are two test sections for different purposes: a closed hard-wall test section for aerodynamic research and an open-jet test section mainly for aeroacoustic investigations. The validation tests of the flow quality were performed by pitot-tube and hot-wire measurements, and those of the aeroacoustic performance were conducted by far-field microphone measurements. The results show that the wind tunnel has a high quality of flow field and low background noise levels. A benchmark test of airfoil noise was conducted with the help of microphone and Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) measurements, which exhibits consistent results with existing experimental observations.