Aerodynamic effects in transportation are crucial not only in terms of longitudinal effects on performance, but also for assessing safety under strong wind conditions. The large dimensions of the Politecnico di Milano Wind tunnel make it particularly suitable for testing large vehicle models and for evaluating the effects of wind angle of attack.
For road and rail vehicles, aerodynamic forces arising from wind-vehicle interaction can be measured using dynamometric balances rigidly connected to the models. In addition, the pressure distribution over the surface can be reconstructed through surface pressure measurements performed with pressure scanners, allowing simultaneous acquisition of data from hundreds of points.
Moreover, for certain types of transportation, wind can be an exploitable source of energy as it is for sailboat and wind-assisted ship propulsion systems. In these scenarios, performing wind tunnel tests on scaled models is useful to evaluate the aerodynamic forces with particular reference to the driving force, generated by sail plans or specific devices used on ships.
