National Wind Tunnel Facility

目前，英国大约有150个风洞，其中大约75个在大学部门。由于联合王国的研究资金结构是双重的，这些研究得到政府的支持，通过HEFCE教学预算，以及从资助委员会，行业和海外机构。这项建议所涉及的设施，主要是由研究经费资助，但并非纯粹由研究经费资助，而不是主要为支持个别大学的教学使命而保留的设施。国家基金模式的基础主要是将资源集中在（1）较少的向所有英国研究人员开放的“外向型”国家基金;（2）表现出基金和专业知识共生并准备展示最佳实践的机构;（3）表现出对这些国家基金的明确、持续承诺的机构。本提案中伙伴的数量是经过选择的，以涵盖一系列战略设施，并与主要在EPSRC职权范围内从事实验空气动力学大多数领域工作的研究人员对国家设施的潜在占用相匹配。国家基金将支持解决多部门问题的研究，但重点显然是航空航天部门。该提案包括低速和高速流（马赫数超过约0.6），并证明有必要将具有国家重要性的设施子集组成位于七个机构的国家风洞设施。在低速状态下，与运输相关（道路和海洋），地球物理流，城市环境，体育和风能应用，中型设施克兰菲尔德，IC和南安普顿形成了关键创新的基础。这些设施将解决诸如减阻、涡激振动、气动弹性、阵风不稳定性和城市环境中的弥散等问题。这些设施中的激光仪器（例如粒子图像测速仪、激光振动仪）以及高保真力平衡仪都具有很强的功能。一个指导原则是，这些设施应提供互补性的类型的实验，他们将支持：因此，虽然克兰菲尔德将支持高质量的力测量，IC和南安普顿将提供专业知识，如层析重建PIV数据的新技术。城市的低湍流隧道是国际知名的，是世界上仅有的三个这样的隧道之一，可以匹配适合过渡研究的大气自由流湍流水平。格拉斯哥的德哈维兰隧道将得到支持，以保持阵风产生的俯仰/升沉能力。由于其对英国GDP的重大贡献，英国必须通过大学对高速气流的研究来激励创新，从而保持其在航空航天领域的主导地位。跨/超音速隧道在剑桥，城市和IC提供了一个独特的混合设施和专业知识，以支持英国航空航天等领域的冲击波/边界层相互作用。目前，牛津大学和IC正在进行高超音速流的开创性研究。这些设施使研究能够跨越一系列高速制度，并与高速激光诊断一起，将使英国研究人员能够解决未来与部门相关的问题。

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.