Settling Chamber and Flow Smoothing Honeycomb

Settling Chamber

The settling chamber or “reservoir” is just upstream of the Test Section, Contraction and Nozzle and houses the Flow Smoothing Honeycomb which performs most of the air flow smoothing for the tunnel. The speed of the air in the settling chamber is 17 metres per second (56 feet per second) when the air speed in the test section is Mach 0.8 (about 980kph or 612mph).

The photograph shows the honeycomb being inspected. The viewer is looking upstream from the test section against the direction of the airflow.

Flow Smoothing Honeycomb

The flow smoothing honeycomb is built from layers of aluminium roofing material. The honeycomb structure is deep so that each cell of the honeycomb acts like a small pipe which emits a smooth, uniform flow of air as it heads towards the Test Section.

The photograph shows a close-up of the honeycomb structure.