The lab is equipped with state-of-the-art research facilities, include water channel, laser, double shutter camera, force measurement system and flow visualization system.

Water tunnel

The horizontal water channel in the laboratory was designed and built by Long Win Science and Technology Corporation. The size of the test section is 450 (W) × 500 (H) × 2000 (L) mm, and the effective height is 45 cm. The working fluid is water. Flow rate can be changed from 0.05 to 0.6 m/s. The driving component consists of a frequency converter and an axial pump. The volumetric flow rate of the test section can reach a maximum of 0.135 m3/s. The whole facility has a net weight of 3,500 kg and a total weight of 11,500 kg with water. In terms of experimental applications, currently the water channel is mainly used for animal flapping wings/foils experiments, and the study of VIV phenomenon for energy harvesting.

Customized PIV system 

The system consists of a Dual Cavities Nd:YAG Pulse laser system and a double shutter camera. The laser and camera are synchronized with a National Instrument Digital Output card controlled by LabVIEW programs. 

 

Nd:YAG Dual Cavities Pulse Laser and Guiding arm

The PIV Laser System has a Dual Cavities Nd:YAG Pulse Laser System and a Laser Beam Guiding Arm.

Dual Cavities Pulse PIV Laser System:

The NANO L 200-15 PIV laser system is manufactured by Litron. It is a Nd:YAG dual cavities pulse laser system, the output laser is green color (wavelength 532nm), maximum pulse energy is 200mJ, the pulse repetition rate is 15Hz, and the operating temperature is 5 to 35 ℃. In addition, it need a 220V to 250V AC at 50/60Hz isolated power supply.

Guiding Arm:

The laser beam guiding arm model is ARM18, which is 1800 mm in length. The clear aperture of 15 mm and the anti-reflective coating mirror for 532 nm. There are four joints, each joint provides a direction of rotation.

This device is simple to set-up and alignment, high mechanical stability, safe beam containment between laser and experiment, and 360° orientation and positioning of the light sheet.

Double Shutter Camera

There is an 8-megapixel CCD camera to capture the PIV images. The camera model is Imperx CLM -B3340M. The major description is as follow:

Resolution

3312 x 2488

Monochrome palette

Controlled by electronic shutter software

Double frame mode

The minimum inter-framing time interval 300ns

Frame rate

21fps (or 10, 6 fps in dual frame mode)

The main feature of the camera is double shutter. This is very important for PIV system. In order to capture the particle displacements accurately, the time interval between the two laser firings is very short. Only a double shutter camera is able to take two photos within the short interval.

The lens mounted on the camera is a NIKKOR 105mm f/2D. The focal length is fixed 105mm, the aperture is bright f/2, the weight is 640 grams, and the filter diameter is 72mm. The lens is sharp with small image distortion.

Force/moment Transducer

We have a six axis transducer, which is ATI Nano 25 IP68, to help us to measure the force and moment of fluid. It can be submerged in the water to a depth of 4 m.

The maximum load of force in x and y direction is 125 N, and 500 N in z direction. For the load of moment, the maximum of load is 3 N×m in x and y direction, and 3 N×m in z direction. The resolution of load of force in x and y direction is 1/48 N, and 1/16 N in z direction. For the load of moment, The resolution is 1/1320 N×m in x and y direction, and 1/2640 in z direction.

The diameter is 28 mm, the weight is 0.136 kg, and the height is 27.5 mm.