Reynolds number tests of an NPL 9510 airfoil in the Langley 0.3-meter transonic cryogenic tunnel
An investigation of the NPL 9510 airfoil was conducted in the Langley 0.3-Meter Transonic Cryogenic Tunnel over the following ranges of test conditions: Mach number of 0.35 to 0.82, total temperature of 94 K to 300 K, total pressure of 1.20 to 5.81 atm, Reynolds number based on airfoil chord of 1.34 x 10 to the 6th power to 48.23 x 10 to the 6th power, and angle of attack of 0 deg to 6 deg. The drag creep previously reported by the British National Physics Laboratory at low Reynolds numbers was also found to be present at high Reynolds numbers; the section drag coefficient continued to decrease even at the highest Reynolds number tested. Tests made close to free-stream saturation did not produce altered aerodynamic coefficients due to condensation effects.