Inside General Motor's Wind Tunnel

[thewayne]

This is a very cool photo series, I'm impressed by the engineering that goes into this thing. I find one thing a little perplexing: they maintain the air at 72f, I wonder if the flow physics are different at different temperatures, and for that matter, different altitudes? Would they benefit from building a similar complex at Cloudcroft, at 8600' ASL? If only I knew someone with a doctorate in physics who could answer such a question... ;-)

I also am curious about the "Do not run fan 193-207 RPM", I wonder if they have a harmonic issue that could damage the facility, and I thought the use of propylene glycol to be quite interesting.

http://www.wired.com/cars/futuretransport/multimedia/2008/09/gallery_windtunnel?slide=1&slideView=3