Development of an economised flow visualization facility (Smoke tunnel) for the visualization of external flows past bodies

The insight into a physical process is always improved if a pattern produced by or related to this process can be observed by visual inspection. Flow visualization is one of the many available tools in experimental fluid mechanics which renders certain properties of a flow field directly accessible to visual perception which are otherwise invisible to the human eye.

The general principle of flow visualization is to render the “fluid elements” visible by observing the motion of suitable selected foreign materials added to the flowing fluid. The foreign material added to the flowing fluid in this case is smoke, generated from the kerosene in the smoke generator.

This paper describes the development of such a flow visualization facility (Smoke tunnel) in the fluid mechanics laboratory of National Institute of Technology, Srinagar, India at a very economic cost primarily aimed at providing teaching aid in the study of external flows in fluid mechanics. In the real world it can be used to study problems like boundary layers, air pollution, design of exhaust system of locomotives, cars, ships, topographical influence of disposal of stack gases etc.