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

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Title Design of vents for the incorporation of wind effects to a virtual environment
Publication Type thesis
School or College College of Engineering
Department Mechanical Engineering
Author Desai, Aditya S
Date 2009-10-22
Description 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.
Type Text
Publisher University of Utah
Subject Wind tunnels; Virtual reality
Dissertation Institution University of Utah
Dissertation Name MS
Language eng
Relation is Version of Digital reproduction of "Design of vents for the incorporation of wind effects to a virtual environment" J. Willard Marriott Library Special Collections TL8.5 2010 .D47
Rights Management © Aditya S. Desai, To comply with copyright, the file for this work may be restricted to The University of Utah campus libraries pending author permission.
Format application/pdf
Format Medium application/pdf
Format Extent 121,899 bytes
Identifier us-etd2,159117
Source Original: University of Utah J. Willard Marriott Library Special Collections
Conversion Specifications Original scanned on Epson GT-30000 as 400 dpi to pdf using ABBYY FineReader 9.0 Professional Edition.
ARK ark:/87278/s6kd2cf2
Setname ir_etd
ID 192954
Reference URL https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6kd2cf2
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