5 March 2024

3 minute learn

In case you are concerned in shopping for or promoting agricultural followers, chances are high you might be accustomed to BESS Labs. For 34 years, BESS Labs, also called Bioenvironmental and Structural Techniques Laboratory, has been the go-to supply of unbiased fan knowledge for each producers and producers. I lately received to affix one in all Hog Slat’s engineering groups for a testing session on the College of Illinois campus.

On the day of our scheduled session, we arrived at BESS Labs on a vivid however freezing chilly day. Because the engineers ready the primary check fan, I requested lab supervisor Steve Ford concerning the lab’s origins.

Steve stated, “Within the late Eighties, a gaggle of Wisconsin electrical coops wished to develop a rebate program to encourage using energy-efficient followers. Nevertheless, they found that the cfm/watts knowledge required to create the rebate program was unavailable. Subsequently, the coop personnel contacted the college’s engineering division to carry out the mandatory checks. For the preliminary testing in 1990, the coop bought 40 followers from a number of distributors and shipped them to Champaign.”

Steve defined that BESS Labs has examined as many as 900 followers in a 12 months, however on common, they check between 500 and 600 followers yearly. Followers come from producers worldwide, together with followers not designated on the market within the US. The testing accomplished by BESS Labs gives overseas producers with confirmed knowledge accepted all through the world.

So, what’s a wind tunnel?

The BESS Lab unit is a 9′ x 9′ x 26′ lengthy wood chamber. To start the check, the crew fixed the check fan at one finish of the chamber and warmed up the motor for quarter-hour.

Then, a 50 HP variable velocity blower fan on the different finish pushed air by way of a honeycombed mesh wall referred to as an air settling display screen to even out the circulate.

Subsequent, the air handed by way of a wall of exactly calibrated nozzles with a selected cross-sectional space. Sensors on all sides of the nozzle wall recorded the stress drop as air handed by way of the nozzles to find out the quantity of cfm being moved. The air then handed by way of a second air settling wall earlier than reaching the check fan. Steve assorted the velocity of the blower fan to check airflow at typical detrimental pressures resembling .05, .10, .15, and so on. Extra sensors additionally recorded energy consumption at every stage.

Our session included verifying air supply and effectivity for 36, 54, and 57-inch followers with totally different prop, motor, and pulley combos. The engineers have been significantly within the outcomes of the OMNI motor drive powering a brand new fan sequence scheduled for launch later this 12 months. The check confirmed the anticipated effectivity and exact velocity regulation, together with appreciable enhancements in motor safety.

The couple of days spent at BESS Labs proved to be an insightful expertise within the fan testing course of. Undoubtedly, their unbiased platform over the previous many years has pushed the effectivity enhancements seen within the followers utilized by the livestock and poultry industries.