Description
TecQuipment's Hele-Shaw produces a streamline in a steady stream. It allows students to study various sources and sink arrangements, and to look at an unlimited variety of models. The apparatus can be represented by the two-dimensional Laplace equation in two dimensions. Thus lecturers can also use it to represent in other branches of engineering, such as aerodynamics or electricity and heat flow.
The apparatus works with a steady, air-free water supply and suitable drain. The equipment consists of a channel formed between two plates. Water flows along the channel at a low Reynolds number, so the inertia forces are not important.
A dye flowing through several small holes at the endstream end streamlines. The removable top of the grid. The apparatus comes with a rubber sheet from which to cut out various shapes of models. When placed between the two plates, students can see the streamline patterns flowing around the models. Also, valves and a vacuum pump allow students to connect two sources and two sinks (or any combination of both).
To perform experiments, students start the water flow and open a dye valve just enough to produce easily visible streamlines. They may use a sink or a sink, or various combinations of flow or sink points. The vacuum pump strengthens the sink points.
To incorporate models into the free stream of the apparatus and the study of the streamlines, the students cut the shapes (supplied). They then sandwich the model between the two plates of the apparatus and start the flow.
To provide a constant head and smooth, TecQuipment offers the optional Header Tank (H9a).
Key features:
• Visually effective demonstration of a wide variety of flow patterns around different shapes
• Ideal for individual and group work demonstrations
• Compact and free-standing
• Models easily cut from sheet (included) - almost any shape possible
• Ideal introduction to incompressible potential flow (aerodynamics)
• Source and sink points provided
• Can show soil seepage problems
Learning outcomes
Various flow visualization experiments in two dimensions,
• Sources and sinks in a uniform stream
• Doublet in a uniform stream
• Flow around a cylinder (disc) and an aerofoil
• Flow through an orifice and a diffus
• Flow through a heat exchanger
• The momentum equation
• Laminar for relationship between two parallel platforms
• Mean velocity equations (including seepage in soils)
• Potential flow relationships
