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ADCL Wind Tunnel — Standard Operating Procedure

This is the operator-facing standard operating procedure for the wind tunnel facility in the Aeronautics, Dynamics and Controls Laboratory (ADCL) at UC Irvine.

If you are about to run an experiment, this is the only document you need. It is short on purpose; nothing here is optional.

For a deeper technical view of the facility — hardware internals, code architecture, troubleshooting — see the contributor Operating & Contributor Manual.

In an emergency

Situation Action
Life-threatening injury, fire, electrical contact, person trapped Dial 911 from a mobile phone, or 9-911 from a campus landline.
Need to stop the motor immediately Press the red Emergency Stop in the control software. If unresponsive, open the main switch.
Smoke, fumes, or odor making you or anyone else feel unwell Stop the run, open the lab door, dial 911 if anyone is symptomatic. UCI EH&S 949-824-6200.
Anything else that scared you Stop, document, contact the PI before resuming.

Read order

  1. Emergency contacts — keep this open.
  2. Before you start — qualifications, training, PPE.
  3. Pre-run checklist — every run, every time.
  4. Running an experiment — the golden-path sequence.
  5. Shutdown checklist — also non-negotiable.
  6. Emergency procedures — what to do when things go wrong.
  7. Quick reference card — single-page summary intended for printing and laminating next to the computer station.

The five non-negotiables

  1. One operator at a time. Whoever runs the tunnel stays at the computer station for the full run.
  2. Test section and exhaust path verified clear before each start. No exceptions.
  3. All three stop paths tested on the first run of the day. Software ramp-stop, software emergency-stop, mains kill. If any one fails, no further runs that day.
  4. Door placard reflects active hazards before starting a flow-visualization run (laser + smoke).
  5. No solo runs after hours. Have a second person reachable in the building or by phone any time the motor is energized outside normal working hours.

What this SOP is not

  • It is not a tutorial on aerodynamic testing.
  • It is not a substitute for in-person training. You must be checked off by an existing operator before running solo.
  • It is not a substitute for the UCI EH&S Lab Safety Fundamentals course, which is required for every operator.

When this SOP needs to change

When the procedure here drifts from how runs are actually performed, the SOP is the wrong document — fix it. Edits go through the project repository at docs/sop/. After editing, rebuild the PDF, reprint the wall copy, and replace the laminated quick-reference card.