Sep.20.2000　Dome 50% Scale Wind Tunnel on Schedule - Vol. 3













▲ FROM THE TOP

Constructions of the fan


Construction


Construction of the fan, which is equivalent to the heart of the wind tunnel, finished around the end of August. After running it on the bench to confirm that the characteristics were up to our expectations, it was shipped to the construction site on the 11th of September.
Unluckily this coincided with the heavy rain storms we had been having those few days and we had to postpone the actual construction for two days. However we were able to finish fixing the fan in place on the 16th of September and the tunnel portion of the wind tunnel became complete.

■Fan Bench Test

In this bench test we confirmed that the required margin actually exists between the actual characteristics of the fan and the required specifications, and that the carbon fibre vanes we developed improved the overall characteristics by decreasing vibration, noise and improving efficiency.
On top of the empirical evidence we were also found out that the actual sound emmitted from the fan was more pleasing to the ear.

■Fan Assembly

he casing for the fan was divided into four parts for delivery so the various construction tasks such as assembly of the lower case, attaching the vanes, the fastening of the rotor to the motor were all done on site. The inner diameter of the fan is 4.3m but this requires 1/100mm precision for the leveling and centering of the fan to the tunnel.
Precise construction was carried out and the assembly was complete.

■Construction Resumed

The construction of the building itself was kept on hold until the wind tunnel was fully complete. Work on the basic structure of the building resumed at the beginning of September and was virtually complete on the 18th.
In the second half of September we expect to finish putting up the walls of the building, so this will be the last time we will be able to view a see-through-cut-away of the building showing the wind tunnel in all its glory. This is a precious photograph of this view.