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OA-005

Modular Desktop Wind Tunnel

Designed and built a working wind tunnel from scratch over 80+ hours of CAD.

Designed, analyzed, and fabricated a modular desktop wind tunnel with nozzle, diffuser, and test-section geometry refined through 80+ hours of SolidWorks CAD.

Role

Designer and builder

Timeline

May 2025 – September 2025

Organization

Personal project

SolidWorksAerodynamicsCAD iterationFabricationFlow visualization
SolidWorks assembly drawing of a modular desktop wind tunnel showing intake, test section, and exhaust views
Assembly drawing showing the modular wind tunnel geometry: intake cone, test section, and exhaust diffuser.

Designing the tunnel

I designed, analyzed, and fabricated a modular desktop wind tunnel. The nozzle, diffuser, and test-section geometry were refined over 80+ hours of SolidWorks CAD, informed by aerodynamic literature, so the intake, test section, and exhaust worked together as one flow path.

Building and testing

The modular design let me fabricate the tunnel as a small, reconfigurable test platform for lift experiments and flow visualization, a physical rig for trying the aerodynamics I'd been reading about.

Documents

Wind Tunnel Report

PDF