A water tunnel is an instrument that provides a uniform water stream for testing flow around bluff bodies. Water tunnels are used for various applications, such as visualizing flow behavior over the bluff bodies and measuring fluid forces on the submerged structure. Water tunnels are used to conduct flow visualization around models. Water tunnels are preferred over wind tunnels for flow measurement, like particle image velocimetry (PIV), because compared to air, the kinematic viscosity of water is smaller by a factor of about 15, yielding higher Reynolds numbers at lower velocities. Simultaneously, the time scales of flow structures are increased, thus leading to an improved determination of transient effects with more ease and accuracy (Greenblatt et al. 2016); Schmidt et al. 2017). The water tunnels can also be used to perform the experimental study of vortex-induced vibration. In this paper, a discussion is made about the design, fabrication, and flow analysis of an open surface recirculating water tunnel having a test section size width \(\times\) height \(\times\) length: 0.2 \(\times\) 0.2 \(\times\) 0.7 m. A Crompton Make MIQ32, a three-phase centrifugal pump of capacity 3 Hp, is used to generate the range of flow velocities from 0.04 to 0.6 m/s. The change in flow speed is achieved by changing the rotational speed of the pump, which can be done with the help of 5 Hp Mistura variable frequency driver. The CAD models of the water tunnel components have been designed in SolidWorks, and flow behavior analysis has been performed in Ansys Fluent. Structural analysis of Water components is performed in Ansys Fluent to provide structural stability. Turbulent intensity of the water tunnel flow is measured with Particle Image Velocimetry and Constant Temperature Anemometer. Turbulent intensity in the test section of the water tunnel is below 2%. The relation between the flow speed and the frequency of VFD has also been established by performing finding the velocities at different VFD frequencies from PIV analysis of the flow in the test section. The relation between the flow speed and the VFD frequency is represented by \(U=0.011682x+0.000550\) .