Compressed Air Supply and Distribution System for Aviation Laboratories and Wind Tunnels

The purpose of this text is to demonstrate an operation of a compressed air system designed for high air flow laboratories and wind tunnels. Development of such air system is a challenge due to unusual requirements (simultaneous supply of several users having different requirements and necessity to provide extremely high flows) which have to be address by means of adequate compressed air storage capacity and sophisticated control system. Each stage of the design process is going to be described, focusing on the selection of air compressors, air receivers and air dryers, followed by an insight into a development of the control system. The air system being described in this paper was successfully implemented at the Institute of Aviation in Warsaw improving the quality of the compressed air supply and simplifying the research planning.