FLAIR experimental datasets

Full description

The collection is comprised of measurement and visualisation datasets collected in the FLAIR water channel laboratory. The data relate to fundamental and strategic research projects, the latter done in collaboration with local and international industrial partners. Much of the work is part of international research collaborations with groups in France, USA, China and India. The datasets detail large parameter space campaigns done at high resolution that provide invaluable reference for ongoing research efforts internally and for collaborators for existing and future publications. The collection holds files in raw documented image formats from flow visualisation and particle image velocimetry, and post-processed HDF5 and documented formats; and signal acquisition from laser Doppler velocimetry, force and hot film anemometry measurements, as well as post-processed results.

Significance Statement

This data collection is of national significance because of its quality and also because it forms the basis of much of our outreach work with external partners.
Our current major projects with collaborative engagements are as follows:
1. work with SINTEF [ http://www.sintef.no/home/ ] from Norway on the interaction of fishing nets with free-surfaces;
2. research with the high-speed train group at Bombardier in Germany on the effect of train geometry on flow field and consequently induced slipstream;
3. ARC DP on the means of understanding and controlling wind turbine aerodynamics;
4. complementing our very successful cycling aerodynamics research in the wind tunnel by measuring the detailed flow field over a single rider and riders in tandem (ARC LP with the AIS and Cycling Australia); and
5. modelling the flow field of freight trains at different loading configurations by determining the detailed topology of the flow over freight wagons.
All of this done with the care and in the depth that enables us to publish the results in the highest impact factor journals in our field. It is also done in parallel with the complementary numerical work done by others in the Group.
Undertaking research of this depth and yet of interest to other partners is rare nationally and our reputation for the work is strong internationally. The advances in approach outlined above (with advances made in model production) have been of great importance in bridging the divide between academic publication and industry / institutional interest. Support for being able to manage the data is crucial in our being able to continue doing such work. Recreating this data is feasible; however, would be extremely time consuming and costly to undertake.