Innovations in Wind Tunnel Testing

A special issue of Aerospace (ISSN 2226-4310).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 December 2016) | Viewed by 29747

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Department of Aeronautical and Vehicle Engineering, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, SE-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden
Interests: wind tunnel testing; incompressible and compressible experimental aerodynamics; shock/vortex interaction; shock waves; compressible vortex flow

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

As the Wright brothers have shown, from the dawn of aviation, wind tunnels have always played an important role in the understanding of fundamental aerodynamics and in the development of all aircrafts to this day. The “golden age” of wind tunnels coincided with that of aviation in the 1950s and 1960s, when every design, no matter how improbable, was tested.

Since the 1990s, with the rapid progress of numerical models and their implementation in the design of new aircraft, the need for wind tunnels, and their strategic role in the development of aircraft, have been put under scrutiny, resulting in the decommissioning, and at times destruction, of key facilities.

The question of the importance of wind tunnels in the development of aircraft is even more pertinent now, with the major aircraft manufacturers in their “production phase,” and with the next clean-sheet design far from being launched, and wind tunnels are now facing a transition from a well-known past to an unclear future, and also needing to define the tests of the future before the next generation of aircraft are on paper.

What progresses are being made in the techniques used and in the way in which a test is carried out, that will assure the strategic importance of wind tunnels and allow them to compete with more and more powerful, and less expensive, numerical simulations? That is the challenge that the wind tunnel community is now facing, and it is the aim of the Special Issue “Innovations in Wind Tunnel Testing” to address this topic.

Dr. Raffaello Mariani
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • wind tunnel
  • measurement techniques
  • measurement systems
  • test methodology
  • innovative approaches

Published Papers (3 papers)

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2376 KiB  
Article
Experimental Aeroelastic Models Design and Wind Tunnel Testing for Correlation with New Theory
by Deman Tang and Earl H. Dowell
Aerospace 2016, 3(2), 12; https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace3020012 - 14 Apr 2016
Cited by 25 | Viewed by 9792
Abstract
Several examples of experimental model designs, wind tunnel tests and correlation with new theory are presented in this paper. The goal is not only to evaluate a new theory, new computational method or new aeroelastic phonomenon, but also to provide new insights into [...] Read more.
Several examples of experimental model designs, wind tunnel tests and correlation with new theory are presented in this paper. The goal is not only to evaluate a new theory, new computational method or new aeroelastic phonomenon, but also to provide new insights into nonlinear aeroelastic phenomena, flutter, limit cycle oscillation (LCO) and gust response. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Innovations in Wind Tunnel Testing)
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5987 KiB  
Article
A Six Degrees of Freedom Dynamic Wire-Driven Traverse
by Thomas J. Lambert, Bojan Vukasinovic and Ari Glezer
Aerospace 2016, 3(2), 11; https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace3020011 - 14 Apr 2016
Cited by 23 | Viewed by 8208
Abstract
A novel support mechanism for a wind tunnel model is designed, built, and demonstrated on an aerodynamic platform undergoing dynamic maneuvers, tested with periodic motions up to 20 Hz. The platform is supported by a 6-DOF (six degrees of freedom) traverse that utilizes [...] Read more.
A novel support mechanism for a wind tunnel model is designed, built, and demonstrated on an aerodynamic platform undergoing dynamic maneuvers, tested with periodic motions up to 20 Hz. The platform is supported by a 6-DOF (six degrees of freedom) traverse that utilizes eight thin wires, each mounted to a servo motor with an in-line load cell to accurately monitor or control the platform motion and force responses. The system is designed such that simultaneous control of the servo motors effects motion within ±50 mm translations, ±15° pitch, ±9° yaw, and ±8° roll at lower frequencies. The traverse tracks a desired trajectory and resolves the induced forces on the platform at 1 kHz. The effected motion of the platform is measured at 0.6 kHz with a motion capture system, which utilizes six near-infrared (NIR) cameras for full spatial and temporal resolution of the platform motion, which is used for feedback control. The traverse allows different platform model geometries to be tested, and the present work demonstrates its capabilities on an axisymmetric bluff body. Programmable timed outputs are synchronized relative to the model motion and can be used for triggering external systems and processes. In the present study, particle image velocimetry (PIV) is used to characterize the realized wakes of the platform undergoing canonical motions that are effected by this new wind tunnel traverse. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Innovations in Wind Tunnel Testing)
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8364 KiB  
Article
Vertical Wind Tunnel for Prediction of Rocket Flight Dynamics
by Hoani Bryson, Hans Philipp Sültrop, George Buchanan, Christopher Hann, Malcolm Snowdon, Avinash Rao, Adam Slee, Kieran Fanning, David Wright, Jason McVicar, Brett Clark, Graeme Harris and Xiao Qi Chen
Aerospace 2016, 3(2), 10; https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace3020010 - 29 Mar 2016
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 9989
Abstract
A customized vertical wind tunnel has been built by the University of Canterbury Rocketry group (UC Rocketry). This wind tunnel has been critical for the success of UC Rocketry as it allows the optimization of avionics and control systems before flight. This paper [...] Read more.
A customized vertical wind tunnel has been built by the University of Canterbury Rocketry group (UC Rocketry). This wind tunnel has been critical for the success of UC Rocketry as it allows the optimization of avionics and control systems before flight. This paper outlines the construction of the wind tunnel and includes an analysis of flow quality including swirl. A minimal modelling methodology for roll dynamics is developed that can extrapolate wind tunnel behavior at low wind speeds to much higher velocities encountered during flight. The models were shown to capture the roll flight dynamics in two rocket launches with mean roll angle errors varying from 0.26° to 1.5° across the flight data. The identified model parameters showed consistent and predictable variations over both wind tunnel tests and flight, including canard–fin interaction behavior. These results demonstrate that the vertical wind tunnel is an important tool for the modelling and control of sounding rockets. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Innovations in Wind Tunnel Testing)
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