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NASA NTRSDate not supplied

High Reynolds Number Testing of the NATO AVT-298 SWiFT Configuration at the National Transonic Facility

A high Reynolds number wind tunnel test of the NATO AVT-298 Swept Wing Flow Test (SWiFT) configuration was conducted in the National Transonic Facility at the NASA Langley Research Center during the summer of 2023. The SWiFT research model geometry has relevance to both blended/hybrid wing body (BWB/HWB) and unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) configurations, and the test campaign was the culmination of an international collaboration under the NATO AVT-298 research task group. The main objectives of the test were to investigate Reynolds number scaling effects on low-speed stability & control characteristics and to examine the onset and progression of flow separation on the wings particularly near the wing crank. Force & moment and surface pressure data were acquired at Mach numbers from 0.2 to 0.8, Reynolds numbers from 2.5 to 34 million, angles of attack from -3 to 20 degrees, and sideslip angles from -10 to 10 degrees. Boundary layer transition detection techniques utilizing static pressure taps, unsteady pressure transducers, and sublimating chemicals were used on the model in a free/natural transition state or a forced transition state using trip dots. Pressure sensitive paint was used to obtain a global surface pressure profile on the model and an advanced laser velocimetry technique was used to obtain velocity measurements in the wake downstream of the wing crank. The results from the test showed clear Reynolds number scaling effects on the maximum lift coefficient and pitching moment coefficient at Mach 0.2, while also capturing significant hysteresis effects. The data acquired from the test will ultimately help improve computational aerodynamic analysis and design tools for application to future BWB-type vehicle configurations.

BWB/HWB↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Aeroacoustic Simulations of the High-Lift Common Research Model and Validation with Experiment

Aerodynamic and acoustic data from unsteady numerical simulations of the High-Lift Common Research Model are compared with experimental measurements from an open-jet wind tunnel test of a 10\-scale model. Time-averaged surface pressure data is in good agreement for all of the configurations evaluated during the test. Unsteady surface pressure spectra from the leading-edge slat and the nose of the main element are presented, demonstrating that the highest levels are associated with the wakes of slat brackets. At these locations the simulations and experiment match reasonably well at low enough frequencies (f < 10 kHz based on the model scale) before excessive numerical dissipation leads to a rapid roll off in the predicted frequency spectra. The agreement is inconsistent at other locations on the slat and main-element surfaces, where the pressure fluctuation levels are lower. Noise predictions using a synthetic microphone array are compared with equivalent experimental results, and the changes in levels predicted between three configurations are similar to those measured. However, some details of the noise predictions are inconsistent with the experiment, and the use of solid- instead of porous-surface data for the acoustic processing of the simulations likely contributes to the discrepancies. All of the simulations were completed before the test, and, despite some shortcomings, they provided valuable insight into the aeroacoustic performance of the model that greatly aided test planning and execution. Hence, the post-test comparisons presented here allow an assessment of the predictive methodology in the context of a realistic high-lift configuration.

High-lift↗

NASA NTRS1986

An experimental investigation of wing tip turbulence with applications to aerosound

Wind tunnel tests were performed to measure the turbulence characteristics of flow in the wing tip region of a blunt tipped NACA 0012 airfoil at angles of attack of 16, 12 and 6 deg and flow speeds of 75, 55, and 35 m/s. Reynolds numbers based on the chord length ranged from 1.8 x 10(exp6) to 3.8 x 10(exp 6). Hot wire measurements were made at an angle of attack of 12 deg and U(infinity) = 55 ms. These indicate fluctuation velocities on the order of 0.13 U(infinity) in the tip region. Surface pressure spectra are presented for alpha = 12 deg and 16 deg; surface-pressure cross-correlations are presented for alpha = 16 deg. These suggest the presence of a well organized turbulence structure with a peak Strouhal number 0.8 to 1.1 based on the wing thickness. High frequency turbulence of lesser intensity was measured at positions near the primary tip vortex on the upper wing surface. A separation region with a spectral peak of St approximately equal to 0.4 was recorded at alpha = 16 deg for the transducer located on the low pressure side of the wing nearest the trailing edge. Surface-surface cross correlations display a double, echo like structure. Near-far field correlations indicate that the well ordered tip turbulence and the separation region on the upper surface both radiate significant levels of far field sound. The use of cross correlation techniques in the wind tunnel has permitted treatment of radiated sound levels which are 25 and more dB below tunnel background levels.

Mcinerny, S. A.↗

NASA NTRS2001

Carbon Dioxide Clouds at High Altitude in the Tropics and in an Early Dense Martian Atmosphere

We use a time dependent, microphysical cloud model to study the formation of carbon dioxide clouds in the Martian atmosphere. Laboratory studies by Glandor et al. show that high critical supersaturations are required for cloud particle nucleation and that surface kinetic growth is not limited. These conditions, which are similar to those for cirrus clouds on Earth, lead to the formation of carbon dioxide ice particles with radii greater than 500 micrometers and concentrations of less than 0.1 cm(exp -3) for typical atmospheric conditions. Within the current Martian atmosphere, CO2 cloud formation is possible at the poles during winter and at high altitudes in the tropics during periods of increased atmospheric dust loading. In both cases, temperature perturbations of several degrees below the CO2 saturation temperature are required to nucleate new cloud particles suggesting that dynamical processes are the most common initiators of carbon dioxide clouds rather than diabatic cooling. The microphysical cloud model, coupled to a two-stream radiative transfer model, is used to reexamine the impact of CO2 clouds on the surface temperature within a dense CO2 atmosphere. The formation of carbon dioxide clouds leads to a warmer surface than what would be expected for clear sky conditions. The amount of warming is sensitive to the presence of dust and water vapor in the atmosphere, both of which act to dampen cloud effects. The radiative warming associated with cloud formation, as well as latent heating, work to dissipate the clouds when present. Thus, clouds never last for periods much longer than several days, limiting their overall effectiveness for warming the surface. The time average cloud optical depth is approximately unity leading to a 5-10 K warming, depending on the surface pressure. However, the surface temperature does not rise about the freezing point of liquid water even for pressures as high as 5 bars, at a solar luminosity of 75% the current value.

Colaprete, Anthony↗

NASA NTRS1991

Heat transfer and pressure measurements for the SSME fuel turbine

A measurement program is underway using the Rocketdyne two-stage Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME) fuel turbine. The measurements use a very large shock tunnel to produce a short-duration source of heated and pressurized gas which is subsequently passed through the turbine. Within this environment, the turbine is operated at the design values of flow function, stage pressure ratio, stage temperature ratio, and corrected speed. The first stage vane row and the first stage blade row are instrumented in both the spanwise and chordwise directions with pressure transducers and heat flux gages. The specific measurements to be taken include time averaged surface pressure and heat flux distributions on the vane and blade, flow passage static pressure, flow passage total pressure and total temperature distributions, and phase resolved surface pressure and heat flux on the blade.

Dunn, Michael G.↗

NASA NTRS2014

An Experimental Investigation of the 30P30N Multi-Element High-Lift Airfoil

High-lift devices often generate an unsteady flow field producing both broadband and tonal noise which radiates from the aircraft. In particular, the leading edge slat is often a dominant contributor to the noise signature. An experimental study of a simplified unswept high-lift configuration, the 30P30N, has been conducted to understand and identify the various flow-induced noise sources around the slat. Closed-wall wind tunnel tests are performed in the Florida State Aeroacoustic Tunnel (FSAT) to characterize the slat cove flow field using a combination of surface and off-body measurements. Mean surface pressures compare well with numerical predictions for the free-air configuration. Consistent with previous measurements and computations for 2D high-lift configurations, the frequency spectra of unsteady surface pressures on the slat surface display several narrowband peaks that decrease in strength as the angle of attack is increased. At positive angles of attack, there are four prominent peaks. The three higher frequency peaks correspond, approximately, to a harmonic sequence related to a feedback resonance involving unstable disturbances in the slat cove shear layer. The Strouhal numbers associated with these three peaks are nearly insensitive to the range of flow speeds (41-58 m/s) and the angles of attack tested (3-8.5 degrees). The first narrow-band peak has an order of magnitude lower frequency than the remaining peaks and displays noticeable sensitivity to the angle of attack. Stereoscopic particle image velocimetry (SPIV) measurements provide supplementary information about the shear layer characteristics and turbulence statistics that may be used for validating numerical simulations.

Pascioni, Kyle A.↗

NASA NTRS2003

Broadband Noise Predictions for an Airfoil in a Turbulent Stream

Loading noise is predicted from unsteady surface pressure measurements on a NACA 0015 airfoil immersed in grid-generated turbulence. The time-dependent pressure is obtained from an array of synchronized transducers on the airfoil surface. Far field noise is predicted by using the time-dependent surface pressure as input to Formulation 1A of Farassat, a solution of the Ffowcs Williams - Hawkings equation. Acoustic predictions are performed with and without the effects of airfoil surface curvature. Scaling rules are developed to compare the present far field predictions with acoustic measurements that are available in the literature.

Casper, J.↗

NASA NTRS1972

Investigation of the Martian environment by infrared spectroscopy on Mariner 9

Measurements obtained during and after the planet-wide dust storm indicate that large diurnal variations in atmospheric temperature existed up to at least 30 km; winds inferred from the temperature fields show a strong tidal component and significant ageostrophic behavior. With the dissipation of the dust, the daily maximum in the atmospheric temperature field moved from approximately latitude -60 and late afternoon local time to near the subsolar point in latitude and time. Analysis of spectral features due to the atmospheric dust indicates as SIO2 content of 60 ? 10%, implying that substantial geochemical differentiation has occurred. Water vapor estimates indicate abundances of 10 to 20 precipitable micrometers. Between November 1971 and April 1972 no gross latitudinal or temporal dependence in the water vapor distribution was detected from the south polar region to the equator. Water vapor was not detected over the north polar regions. Surface pressure mapping was carried out from which topographic relief of nearly two pressure scale heights is inferred. Extensive regions were found where the surface pressure exceeds the triple point pressure of water.

Conrath, H. R.↗

NASA NTRS1973

Local skin friction coefficients and boundary layer profiles obtained in flight from the XB-70-1 airplane at Mach numbers up to 2.5

Boundary-layer and local friction data for Mach numbers up to 2.5 and Reynolds numbers up to 3.6 x 10 to the 8th power were obtained in flight at three locations on the XB-70-1 airplane: the lower forward fuselage centerline (nose), the upper rear fuselage centerline, and the upper surface of the right wing. Local skin friction coefficients were derived at each location by using (1) a skin friction force balance, (2) a Preston probe, and (3) an adaptation of Clauser's method which derives skin friction from the rake velocity profile. These three techniques provided consistent results that agreed well with the von Karman-Schoenherr relationship for flow conditions that are quasi-two-dimensional. At the lower angles of attack, the nose-boom and flow-direction vanes are believed to have caused the momentum thickness at the nose to be larger than at the higher angles of attack. The boundary-layer data and local skin friction coefficients are tabulated. The wind-tunnel-model surface-pressure distribution ahead of the three locations and the flight surface-pressure distribution ahead of the wing location are included.

Fisher, D. F.↗

NASA NTRS1974

Development of inverse inviscid transonic solution methods

A numerical method suitable for the analysis and/or design of supercritical transonic airfoils is reported. In order to achieve accuracy, the method utilizes the full inviscid potential flow equations; and in order to remain simple it solves the problem in a stretched Cartesian grid system. The resulting computer program has several advantages over others of its type -- its use in either the direct analysis mode in which the airfoil shape is prescribed and the flow field and surface pressures are determined, or in the inverse mode in which the surface pressures are given and the airfoil shape and flow field are computed. Other advantages of the program include its use in a design program, the rotated finite difference scheme and its determination of the airfoil shape simultaneously with the flow field relaxation solution.

Carlson, L. A.↗

NASA NTRS2020

Development of Unsteady Pressure-Sensitive Paint Application on NASA Space Launch System

The key measurement to acquire for understanding unsteady flow is surface pressure. Unsteady Pressure-Sensitive Paint (uPSP) is an emerging optical technique used in wind tunnel testing to measure fluctuating surface pressures. Recently, tests were conducted on NASA’s Space Launch System in NASA Ames Research Center’s Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel to determine the aeroacoustics environment and assist in developing the buffet forcing functions. Unsteady PSP data was collected during this test campaign. Steady state PSP data, infrared thermography, shadowgraph, accelerometer data, and dynamic pressure transducer data were also collected. In all 50 TB of data were collected during the three days of testing. During these three days of testing, a repeating transonic and supersonic alpha sweep condition was acquired. This paper presents these two wind tunnel conditions and examines how the temperature influences the PSP data. In the first large demonstration of uPSP in 2015 on an NESC-, AETC-sponsored wind tunnel test, lifetime PSP results highlighted the influence the model temperature had on the PSP data. A best practice of heat soaking the model before acquiring calibration images was followed during the test campaign presented in this paper. An infrared thermography camera and thermocouples were installed in the model to collect more details of the model surface temperature. Data processing schemes for uPSP are still in development but will be briefly presented here as well.

Roozeboom, Nettie H.↗

NASA NTRS1989

Effects of swirl and high turbulence on a jet in a crossflow

An experimental study has been conducted on the effects of initial swirl and high turbulence in the exhaust of a circular jet injected from a flat plate at a 90-deg angle into a crossflow. The different jet types studied were low-exit turbulence (3 percent), high-exit turbulence (over 10 percent), and 40 and 58 percent swirl. Surface pressure distributions and mean velocity vector plots were obtained for all of these cases. For the surface pressure distribution tests, the jet to crossflow velocity ratios R were 2.2, 4, and 8 for most of the jet types. For the mean velocity vector plots, R = 4 was chosen. Turbulence information in the jet plume was also obtained for the low-exit turbulence case at R = 4. The results showed that the higher-exit turbulence reduced the penetration height, and it also reduced the surface area influenced by negative pressures. The swirl-caused asymmetric pressure distributions and the swirl effects were more pronounced for lower-velocity ratios.

Kavsaoglu, M. S.↗

NASA NTRS2017

Application of Sweeping Jet Actuators on the NASA Hump Model and Comparison with CFDVAL2004 Experiments

Flow separation control over a wall-mounted hump model was studied experimentally to assess the performance of sweeping jet actuators. Results were compared to that of the 2004 CFD validation experiment (CFDVAL2004), which examined flow separation control with steady suction and unsteady zero-net-mass-flow actuators. Comparisons were carried out at low and high amplitude excitations. In addition to the active flow control methods, a passive flow control method (i.e., vortex generator) was used to complement the dataset. Steady/unsteady surface pressure measurements and surface oilflow visualization were used in the performance assessment of the actuators. The results indicated that the sweeping jet actuators are more effective than the steady suction and unsteady zero-net-mass-flow actuators. For the same momentum coefficient, the sweeping jet actuators produced more flow acceleration upstream of separation, more pressure recovery downstream, and consistently a smaller separation bubble.

Koklu, Mehti↗

NASA NTRS1992

An experimental/computational study of sharp fin induced shock wave/turbulent boundary layer interactions at Mach 5 - Experimental results

A combined experimental/computational study has been performed of sharp fin induced shock wave/turbulent boundary layer interactions at Mach 5. The current paper focuses on the experiments and analysis of the results. The experimental data include mean surface heat transfer, mean surface pressure distributions and surface flow visualization for fin angles of attack of 6, 8, 10, 12, 14 and 16-degrees at Mach 5 under a moderately cooled wall condition. Comparisons between the results and correlations developed earlier show that Scuderi's correlation for the upstream influence angle (recast in a conical form) is superior to other such correlations in predicting the current results, that normal Mach number based correlations for peak pressure heat transfer are adequate and that the initial heat transfer peak can be predicted using pressure-interaction theory.

Rodi, Patrick E.↗

NASA NTRS1986

Aerothermal tests of spherical dome protuberances on a flat plate at a Mach number of 6.5

Aerothermal tests were conducted in the Langley 8-Foot High-Temperature Tunnel at a Mach number of 6.5 on a series of spherical dome protuberances mounted on a flat-plate test apparatus. Detailed surface pressure and heating-rate distributions were obtained for various dome heights and diameters submerged in both laminar and turbulent boundary layers including a baseline geometric condition representing a thermally bowed metallic thermal protection system (TPS) tile. The present results indicated that the surface pressures on the domes were increased on the windward surface and reduced on the leeward surface as predicted by linearized small-perturbation theory, and the distributions were only moderately affected by boundary-layer variations. Surface heating rates for turbulent flow increased on the windward surface and decreased on the leeward surface similar to the pressure; but for laminar boundary layers, the heating rates remained high on the leeward surface, probably due to local transition. Transitional flow effects cause heat load augmentation to increase by 30 percent for the maximum dome height in a laminar boundary layer. However, the corresponding augmentation for a dome with a height of 0.1 in. and a diameter of 14 in. representative of a bowed TPS tile was 14 percent or less for either a laminar or turbulent boundary layer.

Glass, C. E.↗

NASA NTRS1972

Experimental boundary-layer edge Mach numbers for two space shuttle orbiters at hypersonic speeds

Pitot-pressure profiles and surface pressure measurements have been obtained at four axial stations along the center lines of space shuttle straight-wing and delta-wing orbiters at angles of attack from 20 deg to approximately 60 deg and Mach numbers of 20.3 (helium) and 6.8 (air). The results show that the Mach number at the edge of the boundary layer is best predicted by tangent-cone theory up to shock detachment.

Ashby, G. C., Jr.↗

NASA NTRS1972

Experimental and theoretical aerodynamic heating and flow field analysis of a space shuttle orbiter

The results of work on the McDonnell Douglas delta wing orbiter are summarized and compared to other data and theories where applicable. The tests were conducted in the continuous hypersonic Tunnel B at Mach 8 and in the hypervelocity hotshot Tunnel F at Mach 10.5. Photographic data are used to illustrate the regions of peak heating on the lee-side and to show the vortical nature of the flow. Windward centerline data include measurements of shock angle, surface pressure, flow field pitot pressure and total temperature, and heat transfer rate coefficient distributions. Shock angles, surface pressures, and local Mach number distributions are compared with tangent cone theory over an angle of attack range from 10 to 60 deg. The measured heat transfer rate coefficient distributions are compared to both laminar and turbulent theories and boundary layer transition data are compared to the McDonnell Douglas criteria.

Matthews, R. K.↗

NASA NTRS1973

Highly loaded multi-stage fan drive turbine-cascade test program

Test results are presented for 19 cascades involving five plain and two tandem blade sections. High camber and/or negative reaction is associated with six of the sections. Exit Mach numbers range up to slightly above sonic. Cascade efficiency, exit flow angle and static pressure, and blade surface pressure data are reported with incidence angle, Mach number, solidity, and relative position of the tandem blades as independent variables.

Cherry, D. G.↗