Wind-tunnel tests of a series of parachutes designed for controllable gliding flight
Wind tunnel tests of recovery parachutes designed for controllable gliding flight
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Wind tunnel tests of recovery parachutes designed for controllable gliding flight
A nonlinear, four wall, post-test wall interference assessment/correction (WIAC) code was developed for transonic airfoil data from solid wall wind tunnels with flexibly adaptable top and bottom walls. The WIAC code was applied over a broad range of test conditions to four sets of NACA 0012 airfoil data, from two different adaptive wall wind tunnels. The data include many test points for fully adapted walls, as well as numerous partially adapted and unadapted test points, which together represent many different model/tunnel configurations and possible wall interference effects. Small corrections to the measured Mach numbers and angles of attack were obtained from the WIAC code even for fully adapted data; these corrections generally improve the correlation among the various sets of airfoil data and simultaneously improve the correlation of the data with calculations for a 2-D, free air, Navier-Stokes code. The WIAC corrections for airfoil data taken in fully adapted wall test sections are shown to be significantly smaller than those for comparable airfoil data from straight, slotted wall test sections. This indicates, as expected, a lesser degree of wall interference in the adapted wall tunnels relative to the slotted wall tunnels. Application of the WIAC code to this data was, however, somewhat more difficult and time consuming than initially expected from similar previous experience with WIAC applications to slotted wall data.
A new electronic scanner of pressure (ESOP) has been developed by NASA Ames Research Center for installation in wind-tunnel models. An ESOP system includes up to 20 pressure modules, each with 48 pressure transducers, an A/D converter, a microprocessor, a data controller, a monitor unit, and a heater controller. The system is sized so that the pressure modules and A/D converter module can be installed within an average-size model tested in the Ames Aerodynamics Division wind tunnels. This paper describes the ESOP system, emphasizing the main element of the system - the pressure module. The measured performance of the overall system is also presented.
Wind tunnel investigation of the aerodynamic and structural deflection characteristics of an inflatable aircraft
Wind tunnel measurements on two wing-end plate aircraft model configurations
A straightforward procedure has been developed to quickly determine an inviscid design of a hypersonic wind tunnel nozzle when the test crash is both calorically and thermally imperfect. This real gas procedure divides the nozzle into four distinct parts: subsonic, throat to conical, conical, and turning flow regions. The design process is greatly simplified by treating the imperfect gas effects only in the source flow region. This simplification can be justified for a large class of hypersonic wind tunnel nozzle design problems. The final nozzle design is obtained either by doing a classical boundary layer correction or by using this inviscid design as the starting point for a viscous design optimization based on computational fluid dynamics. An example of a real gas nozzle design is used to illustrate the method. The accuracy of the real gas design procedure is shown to compare favorably with an ideal gas design based on computed flow field solutions.
Wind tunnel technique for measuring frequency response of flexible airplane to vertical sinusoidal gusts
Tests to determine the flow disturbances effects of four ejectors located in the corners just downstream of the diffuser in the Calspan wind tunnel are described. The flow quality in the nonejector mode is employed as the base-line configuration, and operating parameters are compared with data from other wind tunnels. During tests with the ejectors working, fluctuation levels increased between Mach 0.4-0.6, while temperature and vorticity levels remained constant. The ejector exhibited broad spectrum noise typical of free jet noise, yet static pressure measurements revealed only a slight increase in the broadband rms levels with the ejectors on, indicating negligible disturbances upstream caused by the ejectors. Choking the diffuser eliminated the jet noise, and the use of ejectors in the Mach range considered is concluded to cause no significant degradation in the Calspan tunnel flow quality.
Wind tunnel technique for measuring frequency response of flexible airplane to vertical sinusoidal gusts
A 45 deg-honeycomb flow manipulator, mounted parallel to the corner turning vanes, was investigated for improving the flow quality in wind tunnels with little or no settling chamber length. This manipulator permits increased turbulence decay distance in comparison to a conventional honeycomb arrangement. The resulting turbulence levels in a wind tunnel using the 45 deg-honeycomb are comparable to those obtained using a conventional honeycomb, but only when a 45 deg-screen is mounted immediately downstream of the honeycomb and when some separation distance between the turning vanes and the 45 deg-honeycomb is provided for adequate decay of the turning vane wakes (at least twice the spacing between the turning vanes).
A twenty-five foot diameter folding tilt rotor was tested in a large scale wind tunnel to determine its aerodynamic characteristics in unfolded, partially folded, and fully folded configurations. During the tests, the rotor completed over forty start/stop sequences. After completing the sequences in a stepwise manner, smooth start/stop transitions were made in approximately two seconds. Wind tunnel speeds up through one hundred and seventy-five knots were used, at which point the rotor mast angle was increased to four degrees, corresponding to a maneuver condition of one and one-half g.
A wind tunnel simulation of the diffusion patterns in a sea breeze was attempted. The results indicate that the low level onshore flow was well simulated for neutral, stable, unstable, and elevated inversion conditions. Velocity, turbulence, shear stress, and temperature data were taken, and the spread of emissions from ground level sources was investigated. Comparison is made with theoretical predictions by E. Inoue and with the open, homogeneous plane field results of Pasquill. Agreement with the predictions by Inoue is good, and the comparison with Pasquill's results shows that the wind tunnel flows are shifted two categories towards more stable. The discrepancy may be explained as a matter of averaging time.
Wind tunnel studies at supersonic and transonic speeds to determine aerodynamic characteristics of variable sweep wing aircraft - configuration
The XV-5B fan-in-wing aircraft and the Y0V-10 RCF rotating cylinder flap aircraft were subjected to wind tunnel tests. These tests were conducted specifically to provide for correlation between wind tunnel and inflight aerodynamics and noise test data. Correlation between aerodynamic and noise data are presented and testing techniques that are related to the accuracy of the data, or that might affect the correlations, are discussed.
This slide presentation reviews a method for the assessment of three-dimensional conduction effects during test in a Aerothermal Wind Tunnel. The test objectives were to duplicate and extend tests that were performed during the 1960's on thermal conduction on proturberance on a flat plate. Slides review the 1D versus 3D conduction data reduction error, the analysis process, CFD-based analysis, loose coupling method that simulates a wind tunnel test run, verification of the CFD solution, Grid convergence, Mach number trend, size trends, and a Sumary of the CFD conduction analysis. Other slides show comparisons to pretest CFD at Mach 1.5 and 2.16 and the geometries of the models and grids.
Recent customer requirements for improved Mach number stability for sonic boom signature measurements has piqued interest in the use of the solid-wall supersonic test section in the NASA Glenn Research Center 8- by 6-Foot Supersonic Wind Tunnel. To supply customers with understanding of the operating conditions and flow quality in this region of the tunnel, characterization tests were performed in the solid-wall supersonic test section in January 2020. The test entry covered the operating range of the facility for three-drive-motor operation. Calibration models were generated along with an improved understanding of operational considerations for this region of the tunnel. The data set acquired included centerline axial and planar flow-field distributions to quantify test section flow quality. The collected data provided an improved understanding of operational considerations for this region of the tunnel as well as allowed for the development of detailed calibration models for the solid-wall supersonic test section.
Blunt body aerodynamics in re-entry conditions are characterized by oscillatory behavior that is often encapsulated by the pitch damping coefficient (Cmq). Magnetic Suspension Wind Tunnel (MSWT) testing with a Magnetic Suspension Balance System (MSBS) aims to improve blunt body wind tunnel testing by removing the sometimes unknown aerodynamic effects of traditional sting mounts, as well as generate more constrained outputs than vertical spin tunnel testing. Efforts to calculate the uncertainty of the pitch damping coefficient with a proposed Earth Entry Vehicle (EEV) capsule model have been made by fitting an analytic prediction of the attitude time history to video data of a free-to-oscillate MSBS test.
High-temperature luminescent coatings are being developed and applied for simultaneous pressure and temperature mapping in conventional-type hypersonic wind tunnels, providing global pressure as well as Global aeroheating measurements. Together, with advanced model fabrication and analysis methods, these techniques will provide a more rapid and complete experimental aerodynamic and aerothermodynamic database for future aerospace vehicles. The current status in development of simultaneous pressure- and temperature-sensitive coatings and measurement techniques for hypersonic wind tunnels at Langley Research Center is described. and initial results from a feasibility study in the Langley 31-Inch Mach 10 Tunnel are presented.