PITA Fiscal Year 2010 Projects - Courses and Outreach Programs

Universal Wind Tunnel Facility At Lehigh University

Principal Investigators: Terry Hart, Co-PI’s: Donald Rockwell, Herman Nied, Eugenio Schuster, Joachim Grenestedt, Philip Blythe

The Universal Wind Tunnel at Lehigh University was constructed in 2005 using PITA funding and has provided Lehigh with a new capability to train our mechanical engineers in aeronautical technologies and to conduct research on Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAVs). This proposal to enhance the instrumentation for the tunnel will further our capabilities to educate our engineering graduates, many of whom accept positions as engineers in a variety of high-tech companies located in Pennsylvania. Follow-on PITA funding of $14,015 is requested for this enhancement, and it is to be matched 2:1 by internal Lehigh funding to complete the upgrade of the tunnel's instrumentation.