Jet-boundary corrections for reflection-plane models in rectangular wind tunnels
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A wall interference correction method for closed rectangular test sections was developed which uses measured wall pressures. Measurements with circular discs for blockage and a rectangular wing as a lift generator in a square closed test section validate this method. These measurements are intended to be a basis of comparison for measurements in the same tunnel using ventilated (in these case, slotted) walls. Using the vortex lattice method and homogeneous boundary conditions, calculations were performed which show sufficiently high pressure levels at the walls for correction purposes in test sections with porous walls. In Gottingen, an adaptive test section (which is a deformable rubber tube of 800 mm diameter) was built and a computer program was developed which is able to find the necessary wall adaptation for interference-free measurements in a single step. To check the program prior to the first run, the vortex lattice method was used to calculate wall pressure distributions in the nonadapted test section as input data for the one-step method. Comparison of the pressure distribution in the adapted test section with free-flight data shows nearly perfect agreement. An extension of the computer program can be made to evaluate the remaining interference corrections.
Panel method code ANTARES was developed to compute wall interference corrections in a rectangular wind tunnel. The code uses point doublets to represent blockage effects and line doublets to represent lifting effects of a wind tunnel model. Subsonic compressibility effects are modeled by applying the Prandtl-Glauert transformation. The closed wall, open jet, or perforated wall boundary condition may be assigned to a wall panel centroid. The tunnel walls can be represented by using up to 8000 panels. The accuracy of panel method code ANTARES was successfully investigated by comparing solutions for the closed wall and open jet boundary condition with corresponding Method of Images solutions. Fourier transform solutions of a two-dimensional wind tunnel flow field were used to check the application of the perforated wall boundary condition. Studies showed that the accuracy of panel method code ANTARES can be improved by increasing the total number of wall panels in the circumferential direction. It was also shown that the accuracy decreases with increasing free-stream Mach number of the wind tunnel flow field.
The wall interference is obtained for a wind tunnel of elliptic section for the two cases of closed and open working sections. The approximate and exact methods used gave results in practically good agreement. Corresponding to the result given by Glauert for the case of the closed rectangular section, the interference is found to be a minimum for a ratio of minor to major axis of 1:square root of 6 This, however, is true only for the case where the span of the airfoil is small in comparison with the width of the tunnel. For a longer airfoil the favorable ellipse is flatter. In the case of the open working section the circular shape gives the minimum interference.
Currently there is renewed interest in the evaluation and reduction of steady wind tunnel wall interference, especially for large models. Evaluation of previous predictions for perforated and slotted tunnels suggests that a hybrid slotted tunnel (i.e., a slotted tunnel with closed slats and perforated slots) should offer minimum corrections for upwash, flow curvature and solid blockage. This suggestion is confirmed by the present computer studies of a range of rectangular hybrid slotted tunnels. The computer studies are for tunnel working section height to breadth ratios of 0.835 and 0.600 over the Mach number range from 0 to 0.85. Wings swept at 28 deg and 50 deg, with ratios of model span to tunnel breadth varying from 0 to 0.7, are considered. An idealized fuselage shape is used to predict solid and wake blockage corrections for the wall configurations selected on the basis of minimum upwash and curvature interference.
The principal objective is to assess the adequacy of linear acoustic theory with an impedence wall boundary condition to model the detailed sound field of an acoustic source in a duct. Measurements and calculations are compared of a simple acoustic source in a rectangular concrete duct lined with foam on the walls and anechoic end terminations. Measurement of acoustic pressure for twelve wave numbers provides variation in frequency and absorption characteristics of the duct walls. Close to the source, where the interference of wall reflections is minimal, correlation is very good. Away from the source, correlation degrades, especially for the lower frequencies. Sensitivity studies show little effect on the predicted results for changes in impedance boundary condition values, source location, measurement location, temperature, and source model for variations spanning the expected measurement error.
A solution has been obtained for the complete tunnel-interference flow for a lifting vortex in a two-dimensional slotted tunnel. Curves are presented for the longitudinal distribution of tunnel-induced downwash angle for various values of the boundary openness parameter and for various heights of the vortex above the tunnel center line. Some quantitative discussion is given of the use of these results in calculating the tunnel interference for three-dimensional wings in rectangular tunnels with closed side walls and slotted top and bottom.
The principal objective of this study is to assess the adequacy of linear acoustic theory with an impedance wall boundary condition for modeling the detailed sound field of an acoustic source in a duct. This study compares measurements and calculations of a simple acoustic source in a rectangular concrete duct lined with foam on the walls and anechoic end terminations. Measuring acoustic pressure for 12 wave numbers provides variation in frequency and absorption characteristics of the duct walls. The cases in this study contain low frequencies and low wall absorptions corresponding to measurements of low-frequency helicopter noise in a lined wind tunnel. This regime is particularly difficult to measure in wind tunnels due to high levels of the reverberant field relatively close to the source. Close to the source, where the interference of wall reflections is minimal, correlation is very good. Away from the source, correlation degrades, especially for the lower frequencies. Sensitivity studies show little effect on the predicted results for changes in impedance boundary condition values, source location, measurement location, temperature, and source model for variations spanning the expected measurement error.