You may want to steer clear. Principles of flight involves a fair bit of hand waving and approximations of basic physics. Often the students don’t have their basic physics understood anyway.
however, for you own self confideence, it sounds like you are asking how to equate force units to energy units.
Try this:
Use work = force x distance
FWIW I often find it easier to visualise moving aerofoil and initially stationary air (rather than aerofoil in a wind tunnel).
imagine a flat plate area of 1 square metre moving at velocity V metres per seond, that has to accelerate the previously stationary air up to its velocity. (This is the same as a flat plate in a wind tunnel bringing the air to rest.)
Kinetic energy of 1 cubic metre of air at velicity V = 1/2 rho V^2
each second, the volume of the parcel of air needing to be accelerated by the 1 square meter plate = V.
V cubic metres of air, with a Kinetic Energy of 1/2 rho V^ 2 per cubic meter, is a K E of 1/2 rho V ^ 3
now use work = force x distance.
therefore force = work / distance
the flat plate has to do work = the KE change of the air it is working on. In this case 1/2 rho V ^ 3
but it is doing that work over a distance of V metres. I.e.
Force = work / distance = 1/2 rho V ^ 3 / V = 1/2 rho V ^ 2
Does that help at all?