ICING WIND TUNNEL

Our goal

To fund the construction of an Icing Wind Tunnel to better understand the effects of ice accumulation on aircraft structures and systems.

We are a team of six highly motivated and dedicated mechanical engineering students seeking to make a contribution to the advancement of engineering science and ice accretion technology.

Our team includes members with specializations in heat transfers, design and manufacturing, mechatronics and control systems, electronics and software programming.

Wind tunnels are tunnel-like machines where air is circulated under controlled conditions, such as temperature and velocity, to create a desired environment in order to simulate an airflow around an object. This permits the investigation of different behaviors in order to optimize the design of the object.    

The Icing Wind Tunnel (IWT) currently being developed by our team at Concordia University will be able to do testing in icing conditions (-20°C) while achieving high speeds of 100 meters/second. The IWT we are designing also has a special feature: it has the capacity of testing spinning models such as helicopter blades and turbines.

Not only will the Concordia’s IWT be considered a world class icing testing rig, but it will also allow better understanding of the effects of ice accumulation in dynamic environments on aircraft materials and systems. Icing is still a major topic in the research environment since it continues to be a threat to aviation safety.

Each Capstone team is provided with a minimal budget to design, manufacture and build their working prototype. The R&D and manufacturing costs of developing cutting-edge icing wind tunnel technology cannot be achieved under such a restrained budget, which is why we need your support!

Capstone is a final year engineering project that puts all the knowledge acquired throughout students’ university career to the test by allowing graduating students to build a physical system to solve a current engineering problem. Teams of 5 to 7 students, under faculty supervision, develop, design, manufacture, test and implement innovative machines and systems between September and March of their final year.

Capstone will come to a close at the end of March with a poster session that will allow the team to present their working prototype to the public and answer questions about design, manufacturing and the impact of their technology on society. Our donors will be invited to come view our poster and see what you helped us achieve!