Services and Rates

Effective January 1, 2010

Overview

The University of Washington Aeronautical Laboratory (UWAL) is a subsonic wind tunnel testing organization. As a self-supporting university auxiliary enterprise,, UWAL charges its customers in order to pay its employees and to fund maintenance and upgrades to its facilities. This guide describes the most common services UWAL provides for its customers at UWAL’s main facility, the Kirsten Wind Tunnel. UWAL also has access to other facilities and is capable of providing additional services. Please contact UWAL if you have special testing requirements.

Service	Commercial Rate
Occupancy (Tunnel Rental)	$425 per hour, $2250 minimum
Overtime Increment	$100 per hour
Idle-Time	$250 per hour
Electronic Pressure Scanning (EPS)
EPS Setup	$250
EPS Usage	$100 per wind-on hour
Powered Model Testing
Setup	call
Usage	$100 per power-on hour
Pretest Ground Plane Setup
Aircraft Ground Plane	$800
Vehicle Ground Plane	$2500
2D Testing
2D-Wall Pretest Installation	call
2D-Wall Usage	$100 per wind-on hour
Deliverables
Test Report	$250
Extra Hardcopy Test Reports	$100 each
Extra CD or DVD	$100 each
Custom Services
Software Programming	$100 per hour
Electronics Support	$100 per hour
Machine Shop Labor	$100 per hour
Other
Consumables	Cost plus %15

Tunnel Occupancy

Tunnel Occupancy begins with test section preparation for model installation and ends with model removal and test section restoration to the standard aircraft-testing configuration. The standard business hours are 7:30 am to 4:30 pm, Monday through Friday, excluding University of Washington holidays. The shift length can be extended from the nine-hour standard up to twelve hours per day under most circumstances if
UWAL is provided written notice at least two-days in advance. The Tunnel Occupancy Rate will be charged for the entire amount of each scheduled shift under most circumstances.

Tunnel Occupancy includes the following:

• Tunnel rental including use of UWAL PC's for viewing data and doing test-related tasks.
• Personnel to operate the tunnel, reduce the data, and assist with model changes.
• Support for force & moment data acquisition, flow visualization, digital photographs and video.
• Reasonable amounts of office supplies.
• Use of UWAL Plotting and Wind Tunnel Data Organizer software packages.
• Preliminary test data, digital images, and run logs on compact disk (CD-ROM or DVD-ROM) in PC format, prepared at the conclusion of the test.
• Final test data, digital images, and run logs on compact disk (CD-ROM or DVD-ROM) in PC format, following completion of final data processing, if needed.

Overtime Policy

Overtime occurs whenever testing runs beyond the scheduled shift, or whenever testing is scheduled for a Saturday, Sunday, or University of Washington holiday. Overtime charges are in addition to Tunnel Occupancy charges. Overtime charges will be waived for time used to recover from Downtime. UWAL cannot guarantee that Overtime will be available.

Idle-Time Policy

Occasionally customers may find themselves unable to continue with their test campaign. Perhaps a required model part is temporarily unavailable or the test matrix completed ahead of schedule. Once all work on the model and/or tunnel has been completed and the test section has been vacated then the Company representative may request a switch from Tunnel Occupancy to Idle-Time. Idle-Time is only allowed for durations of one hour or longer.

Electronic Pressure Scanning

UWAL has an Electronic Pressure Scanning (EPS) system, which is ideal for measuring large numbers of pressures. There is a per-test setup charge and a wind-on usage charge. EPS usage may be scheduled for an entire test, or only for specific portions of a test, at the customer’s discretion. Please see the Kirsten Wind Tunnel Technical Guide for more information. If you would like to use EPS during your test please contact UWAL to discuss your pressure measurement objectives.

Powered Model Testing

UWAL has an Auxiliary Motor-Generator Set, which is suitable for powering high power density induction motors that can be placed in wind tunnel models. For powered model testing there is a per-test setup charge and a power-on usage charge. Model power usage may be scheduled for an entire test, or only for specific portions of a test, at the customer’s discretion. Please see the Kirsten Wind Tunnel Technical Guide for more information. If you would like to use Auxiliary Model Power during your test please contact UWAL to discuss your testing requirements.

Optional Pretest Ground Plane Setup

Sometimes UWAL may agree to install a ground plane prior to customer arrival for a fixed price, depending on tunnel availability. If available then his offers two advantages for UWAL customers. First, the fees have been set slightly below the expected Occupancy costs that would have otherwise been incurred if the ground plane had been installed during the test. And, since the price is fixed, this protects UWAL’s customers from installation time variances.

2D Testing

As with ground plane testing, UWAL may agree to install the 2D-Walls prior to customer arrival for a fixed price, depending on tunnel availability. There is also a wind-on usage charge for all 2D-Testing.

See the Technical Guide to the Kirsten Wind Tunnel for descriptions of additional services.

Deliverables

Most customers choose to have UWAL write a formal report documenting the test. Purchase of a test report includes printing and shipping of two hardcopies of the test report along with a compact disk (CD or DVD) containing a digital version of the report in Adobe Acrobat PDF format, along with all of the test data and images. Additional hardcopies of the test letter and / or compact disks (with or without a test letter) may also be ordered prior to invoicing.

Downtime Policy

Downtime occurs whenever UWAL is responsible for a problem that takes more than 15 minutes to resolve and that prevents proceeding with the test. UWAL does not charge Tunnel Occupancy or Overtime rates during Downtime. Note that activities that are a part of UWAL’s standard operating procedures, such as calibration routines or tunnel checkouts, are not considered Downtime.

UWAL makes reasonable efforts to ensure that its facilities are operational during scheduled tests. In the event that Downtime occurs, the facility will attempt to recover lost test time by offering additional test time, if available. For example, if the downtime causes a delay of one entire shift and no additional days are available after the scheduled end of test, then one option is to work extended (12-hour) shifts for the remainder of the test. UWAL cannot guarantee recovery of lost test time.

This example cost estimate is for a customer interested in conducting a wind tunnel test of an aircraft. Electronic Pressure Scanning (EPS) data will be collected in addition to standard force and moment data. The proposed test matrix totals 300 wind-on runs (each run is a set of test points where only one parameter is varied, such as the angle of attack or sideslip.) The test matrix also calls for 100 model configuration changes. The customer wants a test report.

Installation Time: 6 hours

Actual model installation times vary quite a bit depending on model complexity and the model manufacturer’s familiarity with UWAL’s model support systems. Sometimes it’s as short as 2 hours, other times it’s 2 days. For this example, 6 hours is used as a reasonable estimate.

Total Wind-On Time with EPS: 25 hours

Assumes an average wind-on time of 5 minutes per run. Run durations primarily depend on number of test points. Runs typically last 4-7 minutes at UWAL.

Total Model Change Time: 30 hours

Assumes model changes take 18 minutes on average. Note that some model changes may take several hours.

Model Removal: 2 hours

Total Time Required:63 hours (or 7 days at 9 hours/day)

Tunnel Rental: $26,775 (63 Occupancy hours at $395/hour)
EPS Setup: $250
EPS Usage: $2,500 (25 wind-on hours at $100 each)
Test Report: $250

Total: $29,775