National Wind Tunnel Facility

目前英国大约有150个风洞，其中大约75个位于大学部门。由于英国研究的双重资助结构，这些研究通过HEFCE教学预算以及资助委员会、行业和海外机构获得政府支持。这项建议涉及那些基本上但不完全由研究资助的设施，而不是那些主要为支持个别大学的教学任务而保留的设施。国家设施模式的基础主要是将资源集中在：(1)对所有驻英国研究人员开放的更少的“外向型”国家设施；(2)展示设施和专业知识共生并准备展示最佳实践的机构；(3)对这些国家设施表现出明确和持续承诺的机构。该提案中的合作伙伴数量已被选定，以涵盖一系列战略设施，并与主要在EPSRC职权范围内的大多数实验空气动力学领域的研究人员对国家设施的潜在接受程度相匹配。国家融资机制将支持解决多部门问题的研究，尽管有明确的重点是航空航天部门。该提案包括低速和高速气流(马赫数超过约0.6)，并证明了具有国家重要性的设施子集的合理性，以形成基于七个机构的国家风洞设施。在与交通(道路和海洋)、地球物理流、城市环境、体育和风能应用相关的低速状态下，中等规模的设施克兰菲尔德、IC和南安普顿构成关键创新的基础。这些设施将解决城市环境中的减阻、涡激振动、气动弹性、阵风不稳定和弥散等问题。基于激光的仪器在这些设施(如粒子图像测速仪、激光测振仪)以及高保真力天平中具有很强的特点。指导原则是，这些设施应该在它们将支持的实验类型方面提供互补性：因此，虽然克兰菲尔德将支持高质量的力测量，但IC和南安普顿将提供新技术方面的专业知识，如PIV数据的断层重建。曼城的低湍流隧道享誉国际，是世界上仅有的三个这样的隧道之一，可以与适合过渡研究的大气自由流湍流水平相匹配。格拉斯哥的德哈维兰隧道将得到支持，以在阵风产生的情况下保持俯仰/起伏能力。鉴于其对英国GDP的重大贡献，英国通过大学研究高速流动来刺激创新，保持其在航空航天领域的主导地位是至关重要的。剑桥、城市和IC的跨/超音速隧道提供独特的设施和专业知识，在激波/边界层相互作用等领域为英国航空航天提供支持。高超声速流动的开创性研究目前正在牛津大学和IC进行。这些设施可以在一系列高速系统中进行研究，并与高速激光诊断技术相结合，使英国研究人员能够解决未来与行业相关的问题。

There are presently about 150 wind tunnels in the UK of which roughly 75 are in the university sector. Owing to the dual funding structure of research in UK, these receive government support through a HEFCE teaching budget as well as from funding councils, industry and overseas agencies. This proposal relates to those facilities funded essentially, but not exclusively by research, and not those retained principally to support the teaching mission of individual universities. The basis of the National Facility model is primarily to focus resource on (1) fewer 'outward-facing' national facilities open to all UK-based researchers; (2) institutions demonstrating a symbiosis of facility and expertise and prepared to demonstrate best practice; (3) institutions that demonstrate a clear, on-going commitment to these national facilities. The number of partners in this proposal has been selected to cover a range of strategic facilities, and to match potential take-up of national facilities by researchers working in most areas of experimental aerodynamics primarily within EPSRC's remit. The National Facility will support research addressing multi-sectoral problems, although there is a clear focus on the aerospace sector. The proposal includes low- and high-speed flows (Mach numbers in excess of about 0.6) and justifies a subset of facilities of national importance to form the National Wind Tunnel Facility based at seven institutions.In the low-speed regime, relevant to transport (road and marine), geophysical flows, urban environment, sport, and wind energy applications, the medium-scale facilities Cranfield, IC and Southampton form the basis of key innovation. These facilities will address such problems as drag reduction, vortex-induced vibration, aeroelasticity, gust unsteadiness, and dispersion in the urban environment. Laser-based instrumentation features strongly in these facilities (e.g. particle-image velocimetry, laser vibrometry) as well as high-fidelity force balances. A guiding principle is that these facilities should offer complementarity in terms of the types of experiment they will support: thus while Cranfield will support high-quality force measurements, IC and Southampton will provide expertise in new techniques such as tomographic reconstruction of PIV data. The low-turbulence tunnel at City is of international renown, being one of only three such tunnels in the world that can match atmospheric free-stream turbulence levels appropriate for transition research. The de Havilland tunnel at Glasgow will be supported to maintain pitch/heave capability with gust generation.Owing to its significant contribution to the UK's GDP, it is essential that the UK maintains its dominant position in the aerospace sector, through the stimulation of innovation via university research in high-speed flows. Trans/supersonic tunnels at Cambridge, City and IC offer a unique blend of facilities and expertise to support UK aerospace in such areas as shock-wave/boundary-layer interaction. Ground breaking research in hypersonic flows is currently underway at Oxford and IC. These facilities enable research across a range of high-speed regimes and, together with high-speed laser diagnostics, will allow UK researchers to tackle future sector-relevant problems.