Deflection and Vibration Analysis of a Wind Tunnel Test Stand

A custom wind tunnel model stand was designed for the specific purpose of testing a circulation controlled airfoil. This design replaces the existing model stand of the West Virginia University Closed-Loop Wind Tunnel. A simple steel stand was first created, but the deflections of this design due to aerodynamic loading of the model and vibrations inherited from the tunnel are undesirable, warranting a redesign of the model stand. This paper describes the analysis and construction of a custom test stand through a simple mathematical analysis, experiment, and finite element analysis using ANSYS.