NUMERICAL COMPARISON OF FINITE DIFFERENCE AND FINITE VOLUME METHODS FOR FLOW IN A SUBSONIC OPEN-CIRCUIT WIND TUNNEL

This study presents the description, modeling, and verification of the internal flow behavior in a subsonic wind tunnel using two fully independent approaches: an analytical model based on finite differences (FD) and a numerical CFD simulation. Initially, the geometric characteristics of an open-circuit subsonic wind tunnel are detailed, including the suction section, test section, contraction zone, and diffuser. The analytical model is derived from the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations, discretized and solved in MATLAB. In parallel, the numerical CFD simulation is conducted in ANSYS Fluent using a laminar turbulence model. The results include velocity contour fields generated by both the FD and CFD models.