MLIT Orders Wind Tunnel for Japan Meteorological Agency

Tokyo, April 8, 2010 — Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd. announced today that it has received an order for a wind tunnel from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism’s Kanto Regional Development Bureau. The wind tunnel is to be built for the Japan Meteorological Agency.

The Japan Meteorological Agency will use the new wind tunnel for testing the structural integrity and accuracy of anemometers used in meteorological observations. The wind tunnel is comprised of a fan that generates a uniform airflow which can be maintained at a specific speed, a set of air vanes to direct the airflow, and a test section where measurements can be performed. Testing proceeds by placing an anemometer in the wind tunnel’s test section. The airflow is then directed at the anemometer to see how accurately the instrument indicates wind speeds.

The horizontal closed circuit wind tunnel (Gottingen type) will feature an open test section. The wind tunnel will come equipped with two types of nozzles, measuring 1,000 mm and 1,200 mm in diameter at the tunnel outlet. The cross-sectional configuration of the nozzles will be either circular or equilaterally polygonal with eight or more sides. The new tunnel is capable of generating wind speeds of up to 108 m/s.

Since 1957, Kawasaki has been delivering wind tunnels for a wide spectrum of fields, including civil engineering, construction, environmental, automobile and aerospace. As a leading wind tunnel manufacturer, Kawasaki is working on the frontiers of technology to develop state-of-the-art wind tunnels to meet an expanding range of needs.