With built-in technology and expertise, and its location squarely in the center of America’s wind tunnel, Wichita State University’s National Institute for Aviation Research (NIAR) is uniquely suited to fulfill the testing needs of wind turbine manufacturers. Our capabilities include the following.

Mechanical Test Lab

  • Static and cyclic testing (ASTM and non-standard)
  • Impact testing
  • Slow-cycle fatigue testing
  • Ability to design and fabricate non-standard test fixtures and perform non-standard tests
  • Aging studies
  • Damage tolerance
  • Specimen conditioning
  • Environmental testing (-200F to +600F)
  • Specimen machining (ASTM and non-standard)
  • Strain gauging and specimen QC

Full-Scale Structural Test Lab

  • 130,000 square feet (39,000 square meters) of testing space 
    Clear span: 265 feet (80 meters) 
    Ceiling height: 48 feet (14 meters)
  • Test fixture design and fabrication
  • Load system design and fabrication
  • Strain gage and transducer installation
  • Data and load control system development and installation
  • Testing services and data handling

Environmental Test Lab

  • Full range of DO-160 testing
  • MIL-STD testing
  • Temperature, humidity, altitute, explosion proofness, fire resistance
  • Indirect effects lighting
  • Salt fog
  • RF (Radio Frequency) Susceptibility Testing to high field strengths
  • RF Interference/RF Compatibility Testing
  • Vibration

Walter H. Beech Wind Tunnel

  • Test section 7 feet x 10 feet x 12 feet
  • 240 mph maximum continuous speed
  • Real-time data reduction and display
  • Digital video and still cameras
  • Internal and external balances and various mounting options
  • Pressure measurement
  • Flow visualization with multi-camera video recording system and laser sheet, smoke, tufts and china clay
  • Engineering technical services available from WSU aerospace engineering faculty including computational fluid dynamics modeling, analysis and wind tunnel model structural analysis