Today we worked with Joe to observe a wind tunnel, visited vibration labs, and acoustic rooms designed to help reduce noise in aeronautical structures. The vibration lab helped display how different materials respond to sound and other factors, such as stress and pressure.
Within the wind tunnel, we observed how it worked, through diffusers and fans and propellers. The wind tunnel was “subsonic” which means that it has a max speed of around Mach .4, and is relatively stable. NC State also has a wind tunnel of Mach ~2.3, and that is their supersonic wind tunnel, but it is incredibly loud.
