Photo: Thomas Hjort Jensen

Ready for triple hurricane

Wind energy
Wind speeds will reach up to three times hurricane-force inside the new national wind tunnel being built on the DTU Risø Campus. The wind will rush through these five-metre tall guide vanes, which change its direction and ensure uniform flow around the corners.

Fortunately, the fan used to generate the extreme wind pressure in the tunnel is not switched on, otherwise the person pictured would be blown with the 630 cubic metre per second flow through the fan and 120 metres to a lattice further along the tunnel.

Photo: Thomas Hjort Jensen

The wind tunnel will be one of the world’s largest university tunnels, and will be so quiet that it can also be used to measure the noise caused by the wind. The tunnel will be completed in early 2018, and one application will be to test components for the wind turbine industry.