Key characteristics
CSTB of Nantes is a leading wind engineering centers in the world. With 6 wind tunnels, it achieves reduced scale and full scale aerodynamic and climatic testing of buildings, civil engineering, and construction elements. The major Aquasim equipment is dedicated to the study of the water cycle at the scale of the plot.
One more than 5000m², the CSTB “Jules Verne climatic wind tunnel” is able to simulate and analyze the wind behavior of full scale equipment’s facing extreme climates.
Equipment
The wind tunnel has two units:
Thermal unit
- Heat exchangers , experimental test section recreating a wind reaching 140 km/h with temperatures from -32 ° to 55 ° C, 6 Fans and a maximum electricity power of 1000kW.
Dynamic unit
- Recreates a wind reaching 280 km/h with 3200 kW fans
Services
- Analysis at full scale of the equipment behavior under natural wind, storm, sandstorm and wind dust.
- Analysis at full scale of the equipment behavior under extreme weather conditions: snow, rain, heat and cold.
Example of MRE applications
- Study of a floating wind turbine with swell simulation.
- Dynamic solicitations over cables and floats.
