Design of vents for the incorporation of wind effects to a virtual environment

The purpose of this project is to add wind presence to a virtual environment known as the Tread Port Active Wind Tunnel (TPAWT). This was done by utilizing a set of flow conditioning devices to supply air along video projection screens that direct the flow towards a user walking on the tread mill. The speed and direction of the wind is controlled using various control techniques. However, for these techniques to work, it is necessary to provide 4" wide 8' tall uniform columns of air flow along the edge of the screens, which is the subject of this thesis. The flow conditioning device designed for this purpose comprises a vent column, two sets of turning vanes (upper and lower), a nozzle and a honeycomb. A quarter scale model was studied initially. The model had a variable opening nozzle for flow velocity control. Various tests were conducted to evaluate the models' flow conditioning capability depending on fan frequency, percentage nozzle opening, effectiveness of vanes and the presence of a honey comb. The limited effectiveness of the quarter scale model led to redesign of the vent system, which is studied here. Space constraints imposed on the setup necessitated an unconventional and new design of the vents. The design procedure for the vents involved the introduction of vanes and optimization of their arrangement, in order to change the direction of the flow in a compact space. Over 35 different configurations were designed using AutoCAD and tested using FLUENT to simulate the flow through the vent.