MIRA has the UK’s only full scale aerodynamic wind tunnel providing a cost-effective solution for aerodynamic test and development for a wide range of applications from automotive vehicle development, motorsport, aerospace, wind engineering, structures and sport sectors.
Using MIRA’s experience and aerodynamic wind tunnel our customers are able to compress the development lead times for their projects and minimise their costs to deliver right-first-time products to market ahead of their competitors. MIRA's full scale wind tunnel (FSWT) has been used for aerodynamic evaluation of all manner of products as diverse as life rafts, sports equipment, people (athlete position optimisation), buildings, road signs/barriers and even red noses for cars (safety issues rather than aerodynamics).
Aerodynamic force measurements available are drag, side force, lift, yaw, pitch and roll and yaw angles are +/- 180deg. Data acquisition is via a 62 channel pressure measurement system with transient output of forces and moments. Frontal area measurements can be taken in an area adjacent to the test section and flow visualisation during testing can be performed in various ways including conventional smoke wands and state of the art large volume airflow visualisation (LVAV) using helium bubbles and ‘motion-capture’ techniques.
Use of the wind tunnel allows our customers to do more aerodynamic development and validation testing with the advantages of guaranteed, repeatable conditions and lower overall developmental costs.