Progress Towards the Development of a 3D PIV Flow Measurement System for Wind Tunnel Applications

Abstract

Current instrumentation systems in our nation's wind tunnel facilities are quite inadequate in responding to the demand for better understanding of aerodynamic performance of modern aviation systems. Modern aviation systems rely heavily on the performance of subsystems such as ac winglets, fast response lifting surfaces and micro/macro vortex generators. For example, our current management strategies for the control and alleviation of trailing vortices suffers from the lack of a better understanding of the vortex morphogenesis near wing-tip areas. Flows associated with these system subcomponents are highly three dimensional. To develop a better understanding of these flows, it is important that we develop tools that could provide three dimensional flow fields. In general, current flow mapping methods used in industrial and commercial large wind tunnel facilities are limited to techniques such as multi-point hot wire anemometry, and single point laser Doppler systems. These techniques are handicapped when volumetric data is required for validation of CFD studies. A flow mapping system that could be easily used to obtain volumetric three component velocity data is highly desirable in order to resolve many flow/structure related safety and control issues in modern aviation systems. In this paper we report on progress towards the development of a novel 3D imaging systems that would address abovementioned issues.

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