Mini Airflow Tunnel Project

Information

The aim of this project is to develop and share an easy to use and low-cost tool for wind analysis with an empirical approach on physical wind simulation. This tool is a mini airflow tunnel that can provide graphical representations of airflow data for a quick feedback , visualisation and analysis, for architects and designers in the early design stage. This tool is suitable for preliminary analysis of aerodynamic phenomena near buildings, such as wind flow acceleration, that can produce discomfort issues on pedestrians. The mini airflow tunnel project is an association of analog and digital technology: it uses electronic components for arduino technologyand Rhino 3D software with Grasshopper3D and Firefly plugins for graphical visualisation of airflow data in real time.

Website: http://miniwindtunnel.wordpress.com
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Members: 11
Latest Activity: Sep 20, 2023

The Mini Airflow Tunnel Project

The mini airflow tunnel project aim is share a tutorial to build a low cost platform of wind analysis for architects. It is suitable for preliminary analysis of aerodynamic phenomena near buildings, such as airflow acceleration, that can produce discomfort issues on pedestrians. Its purpose is in the field of early design stage and teaching. This project does not try to replace well know technologies such as atmospheric boundary layer wind tunnels or computational fluid dynamics programs. We know the limitations of our mini tunnel to replicate real wind conditions. It is for this reason that we call this project the mini airflow tunnel, defining it as tool that facilitates the visualisation and comprehension of basic aerodynamic phenomena around building concepts, using current low cost and easy-to-use components.

The mini airflow tunnel project has three basic parts:

1) a modular portable tunnel

2) a arduino platform with wind sensors

3) a graphical visualisation using Grasshopper 3D and Firefly plug-in

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Comment by Rafael on June 19, 2016 at 8:43pm

Publications:

Wind sensing with real-time visualisations for Designers
Daniel Prohasky, Rafael Moya Castro, Simon Watkins, Jane Burry, Mark Burry. Published in 32nd eCAADe Conference Proceedings. 10-12 September 2014, Newcastle upon Tyne (England).

A physical and numerical simulation strategy to understand the impact of the dynamics in air for the design of porous screens
Mani Williams, Rafael Moya, Daniel Prohasky, Mehrnoush Latifi Khorasgani, Simon Watkins, Mark Burry, Jane Burry, Philip Belesky. Published in 6th SimAUD Conference Proceedings. 12-15 April 2015, Washington, DC (USA).

Low Cost Hot-element Anemometry Verses the TFI Cobra
Daniel Prohasky, Simon Watkins. Published in 19th Australasian Fluid Mechanics Conference. 8-11 December 2014, Melbourne, Australia.

Design-driven physical experimentation: A Flexible Wind Sensing Platform for Architects.
Daniel Prohasky, Rafael Moya, Simon Watkins, Jane Burry. Published in The 21st International Conference on Computer-Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia, CAADRIA, 29 March - 2 April 2016, Melbourne, Australia.

Comment by Rafael on June 19, 2016 at 8:39pm: Macroscopes and Microscopes. Designing with microclimate from bitacovir on Vimeo.

Workshop Macroscopes and Microscopes. Designing with microclimate. March 30, 2016 - April 2, 2016. Melbourne, Australia - The University of Melbourne.
Mehrnoush Latifi , Daniel Prohasky, Dr Rafael Moya Castro (RMIT) and Chen Canhui (UoM)

Comment by Rafat Ahmed on July 11, 2015 at 1:09pm: Thank for this big contribution for CFD Analysis, its really priceless.

Comment by djordje on July 9, 2015 at 6:56am: Yes, I already checked the tutorial. Very nice explanation.
Thank you for sharing it, you two did an amazing contribution to the cfd with this project!

Comment by Rafael on July 9, 2015 at 6:52am: Hi djordje. The anemometer in the video is only to show the wind velocity inside the wind tunnel. The mini airflow tunnel project is to be used with the micro wind sensors connected with an arduino board. In the web there is a tutorial that show the process built your own mini airflow tunnel.

Comment by djordje on July 9, 2015 at 2:17am: Wow! This is wonderful project Rafael!!!
Thank you for sharing it.
The hand-held anemometer you/Danial holds in the video is not mandatory? Only these 6 mini are?