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Models featuring the simulation of exhaust jets were developed for magnetic levitation in a wind tunnel. The exhaust gas was stored internally producing a discharge of sufficient duration to allow nominal steady state to be reached. The gas was stored in the form of compressed gas or a solid rocket propellant. Testing was performed with the levitated models although deficiencies prevented the detection of jet-induced aerodynamic effects. Difficulties with data reduction led to the development of a new force calibration technique, used in conjunction with an exhaust simulator and also in separate high incidence aerodynamic tests.

Simulation of propulsion induced aerodynamic forces and moments, which arise as a result of interactions between propulsive jets and the free stream, is one of the most desired capabilities in magnetic suspension wind tunnels. The feasibility of generating exhaust jets of appropriate characteristics onboard magnetically suspended models was examined. Four concepts of remotely operated propulsion simulators was considered. Three conceptual designs involving conventional technologies such as compressed gas cylinders, liquid monopropellants, and solid propellants were developed. The fourth concept, a laser assisted thruster, which can potentially simulate both inlet and exhaust flows, was found to require very high power levels. The measurement of aerodynamic forces and/or moments were demonstrated, including the effects of exhaust jets, in MSBS wind tunnels. Two propulsion simulator models were developed, a small scale and a large scale unit, both using compressed, liquified CO2 as propellant. Results of the wind tunnel tests with the small scale simulator are discussed.

Adaptive wall research at the University of Southampton has been directed towards the development of testing techniques for use in nonporous test sections where two flexible walls are profiled in single curvature. This paper highlights the recent advances that have been made in the testing of 2D airfoils through the speed of sound and the testing of 3D models at high subsonic speeds. Techniques have been developed to accommodate the variety of flow regimes encountered in near sonic airfoil tests. The experimental evidence to date suggests that the new techniques coupled with established procedures allow airfoil data, free from top and bottom wall interference, to be gathered from adaptive flexible walled test sections throughout the entire subsonic, transonic and supersonic speed ranges. Techniques applicable to the testing of 3D models have evolved primarily from experience gained by testing sidewall mounted half-wings. Emphasis has been placed upon models with planforms similar to those of current transport wings. Techniques for high subsonic speeds have now been developed to the point where the residual levels of interference are low.

The prospects are reviewed of a range of possible surface flow visualization methods for application to model testing in the large cryogenic wind tunnel. Desirable features are outlined, including the flow details which should be revealed by the various methods. The risks of model and tunnel contamination are discussed, also the coverage of the model surface to be expected, the advance planning and complexity of model design and tunnel equipment required by the visualization method, and the prospects of generating multiple flow images during one tunnel run. The techniques range from the untried to several on which already there is some experience in the cryogenic environment. Directions for further development are suggested.

This paper summarises recent research at the University of Southampton into adaptive wall technology and outlines the direction of current efforts. The work is aimed at developing techniques for use in test sections where the top and bottom walls may be adjusted in single curvature. Wall streamlining eliminates, as far as experimentally possible, the top and bottom wall interference in low speed and transonic aerofoil testing. A streamlining technique has been developed for low speeds which allows the testing of swept wing panels in low interference environments. At higher speeds, a comparison of several two-dimensional transonic streamlining algorithms has been made and a technique for streamlining with a choked test section has also been developed. Three-dimensional work has mainly concentrated on tests of sidewall mounted half-wings and the development of the software packages required to assess interference and to adjust the flexible walls. It has been demonstrated that two-dimensional wall adaptation can significantly modify the level of wall interference around relatively large three-dimensional models. The residual interferences are small and are probably amenable to standard post-test correction methods. Tests on a calibrated wing-body model are planned in the near future to further validate the proposed streamlining technique.

Cryogenic wind tunnel users must have available surface flow visualization techniques to satisfy a variety of needs. While the ideal from an aerodynamic stand would be non-intrusive, until an economical technique is developed there will be occasions when the user will be prepared to resort to an intrusive method. One such method is proposed, followed by preliminary evaluation experiments carried out in environments representative of the cryogenic nitrogen tunnel. The technique uses substances which are gases at normal temperature and pressure but liquid or solid at cryogenic temperatures. These are deposited on the model in localized regions, the patterns of the deposits and their subsequent melting or evaporation revealing details of the surface flow. The gases were chosen because of the likelihood that they will not permanently contaminate the model or tunnel. Twenty-four gases were identified as possibly suitable and four of these were tested from which it was concluded that surface flow direction can be shown by the method. Other flow details might also be detectable. The cryogenic wind tunnel used was insulated on the outside and did not show signs of contamination.

The testing of two-dimensional airfoil sections in adaptive wall tunnels is relatively widespread and has become routine at all speeds up to transonic. In contrast, the experience with the three-dimensional testing of swept panels in adaptive wall test sections is very limited, except for some activity in the 1940's at NPL, London. The current interest in testing swept wing panels led to the work covered by this report, which describes the design of an adaptive-wall swept-wing test section for a low speed wind tunnel and gives test results for a wing panel swept at 40 deg. The test section has rigid flat sidewalls supporting the panel, and features flexible top and bottom wall with ribs swept at the same angle as the wing. When streamlined, the walls form waves swept at the same angle as the wing. The C sub L (-) curve for the swept wing, determined from its pressure distributions taken with the walls streamlined, compare well with reference data which was taken on the same model, unswept, in a test section deep enough to avoid wall interference.

This report covers work done in a transonic wind tunnel towards providing data on the influence of the movement of wall-control jacks on the Mach number perturbations along the test section. The data is derived using an existing streamline-curvature program, and in application is reduced to matrices of influence coefficients.

The background to the evolution of the cryogenic wind tunnel is outlined, with particular reference to the late 60's/early 70's when efforts were begun to re-equip with larger wind tunnels. The problems of providing full scale Reynolds numbers in transonic testing were proving particularly intractible, when the notion of satisfying the needs with the cryogenic tunnel was proposed, and then adopted. The principles and advantages of the cryogenic tunnel are outlined, along with guidance on the coolant needs when this is liquid nitrogen, and with a note on energy recovery. Operational features of the tunnels are introduced with reference to a small low speed tunnel. Finally the outstanding contributions are highlighted of the 0.3-Meter Transonic Cryogenic Tunnel (TCT) at NASA Langley Research Center, and its personnel, to the furtherance of knowledge and confidence in the concept.

The aerodynamic forces and moments acting upon a magnetically suspended wind tunnel model are derived from calibrations of suspension electro magnet currents against known forces. As an alternative to the conventional calibration method of applying steady forces to the model, early experiences with dynamic calibration are outlined, that is a calibration obtained by oscillating a model in suspension and deriving a force/current relationship from its inertia force and the unsteady components of currents. Advantages of dynamic calibration are speed and simplicity. The two methods of calibration applied to one force component show good agreement.

A superconducting electromagnetic suspension and balance system for an 8 x 8-ft, Mach 0.9 wind tunnel is presented. The system uses a superconducting solenoid as a model core 70 cm long and with a 11.5 cm OD, and a combination of permanent magnet material in the model wings to produce the required roll torque. The design, which uses an integral cold structure rather than separate cryostats for mounting all control magnets, has 14 external magnets, including 4 racetrack-shaped roll coils. Helium capacity of the system is 3.0 to 3.5 l with idling boiloff rate predicted at 0.147 to 0.2 l/h. The improvements yielded a 50-percent reduction in the system size, weight, and cost.

The more important changes to the 0.1 m cryogenic wind tunnel since its completion in 1977 are outlined. These include detailed improvements in the fan drive to allow higher speeds, and the provision of a test section leg suitable for use with a magnetic suspension and balance system. The instrumentation, data logging, data reduction and tunnel controls were also improved and modernized. A tunnel performance summary is given.

Two dimensional airfoil testing in an adaptive wall test-section wind tunnel requires the computation of the imaginary flow fields extending outward from the top and bottom test section walls. A computer program was developed to compute the flow field which would be associated with an arbitrary test section wall shape. The program is based on incompressible flow theory with a Prandtl-Glauert compressibility correction. The program was validated by comparing the streamline and the pressure field generated by a source in uniform flow with the results from the computer program. A listing of the program, the validation test results, and a sample program are included.

The engineering practicality of a persistent high-field superconducting solenoid cryostat as a magnetic suspension and balance system (MSBS) for wind-tunnel testing of aircraft and missile models is examined. The test apparatus is a simple solenoid of filamentary NbTi superconductor with a cupronickel matrix. The apparatus, with a length-to-diameter ratio of 6 to 1 and a radius of 32 mm, used a 0.25 mm wire with a critical current of 27 A in an external field of 6 T. The total heat inleak of 150 mW was achieved. Helium boiloff rates were tested over a range of operating conditions, including pitch attitudes from 10 deg nose down to 90 deg nose up; the rate was estimated as low, but the aerodynamic acceptability of venting gaseous helium has not been determined. It is shown that the effectiveness of the concept increases with increasing scale, and performance in excess of that of conventional ferromagnets is achievable with reduction in size and costs, and with aptness to transonic wind-tunnel testing. Detailed specifications and schematics are included.

Both two- and three-dimensional model testing is being carried out in the transonic flexible-walled wind tunnel test section. The test section has flexible top and bottom walls with rigid sidewalls. Interference is eliminated by adjustments based on data taken at walls in two dimensional models. Cast-7 data will illustrate agreement between various flexible-walled tunnels. In three-dimensional models interference cannot be eliminated but wall adjustments can control and relieve the principal sources of wall-induced errors. Estimates of magnitudes of the control which may be exercised on flow by movement of one wall jack are presented. A wall control algorithm (still in analytic development stage) based on use of this data is described. Brief examples of control of wall-induced perturbations in region of model are given.

The results of experimental demonstrations of a superconducting solenoid model core in the Southampton University Magnetic Suspension and Balance System are detailed. Technology and techniques relevant to large-scale wind tunnel MSBSs comprise the long term goals. The magnetic moment of solenoids, difficulties peculiar to superconducting solenoid cores, lift force and pitching moment, dynamic lift calibration, and helium boil-off measurements are discussed.

An automated test section was used to develop a flexible walled testing technique which eliminates some sources of uncertainty in boundary interference effects which exist in conventional transonic test sections. The flexible floor and ceiling of the test section were adjusted to contours which produce a constant Mach number distribution along each wall with no model present. These aerodynamically straight contours form the basis for all streamlining. The wall data are to contain information on the models performance and on lift. Two dimensional validation testing has continued with a cambered NPL 9510 section. Lift data up to Mach 0.87 are compared with reference data. Drag information on a NACA 0012-64 section is presented to indicate the powerful effects of streamlining. Preliminary three dimensional testing in the two dimensional test section has demonstrated that model and support blockage can be relieved by wall contouring.

Data obtained from the boundary of a test section provides information on the model contained within it. A method for extracting some of this data in two dimensional testing is described. Examples of model data are included on lift, pitching moment and wake displacement thickness. A FORTRAN listing is also described, having a form suitable for incorporation into the software package used in the running of such a test section.

Operation of the Transonic Self-Streamlining Wind Tunnel (TSWT) involved on-line data acquisition with automatic wall adjustment. A tunnel run consisted of streamlining the walls from known starting contours in iterative steps and acquiring model data. Each run performs what is described as a streamlining cycle. The associated software is presented.

The techniques used to find aerodynamically straight wall contours in a test section of a transonic wind tunnel are discussed. The walls were defined as aerodynamically straight up to Mach 0.9.

An improvement is presented for the 2-D strategies for adjustment of the flexible top and bottom walls of an Adaptive (Wind Tunnel) Wall Test Section (AWTS). This adjustment is part of the wall adaptation process to eliminate top and bottom wall interference at the source. The improvements to account for second order effects are described in mathematical detail. It is intended that these improvements should further minimize the necessary iterations in the wall adaptation process. An associated computer program written in BASIC is presented and several test cases run with this program are discussed. The strategy performs well for a theoretical test case but when applied to experimental AWTS data some discrepancies in the adapted wall shapes are found.

Data for a NACA 0012-64 airfoil at Mach numbers of 0.3, 0.5, and 0.7 with the test section flexible walls set in the "straight" position are presented because they may prove useful in the development of wind tunnel correction techniques.

A two dimensional test section in a low speed wind tunnel capable of producing flow conditions free from wall interference is presented. Flexible top and bottom walls, and rigid sidewalls from which models were mounted spanning the tunnel are shown. All walls were unperforated, and the flexible walls were positioned by screw jacks. To eliminate wall interference, the wind tunnel itself supplied the information required in the streamlining process, when run with the model present. Measurements taken at the flexible walls were used by the tunnels computer check wall contours. Suitable adjustments based on streamlining criteria were then suggested by the computer. The streamlining criterion adopted when generating infinite flowfield conditions was a matching of static pressures in the test section at a wall with pressures computed for an imaginary inviscid flowfield passing over the outside of the same wall. Aerodynamic data taken on a cylindrical model operating under high blockage conditions are presented to illustrate the operation of the tunnel in its various modes.

Theoretical considerations indicate that cooling the wind-tunnel test gas to cryogenic temperatures will provide a large increase in Reynolds number with no increase in dynamic pressure while reducing the tunnel drive-power requirements. Studies were made to determine the expected variations of Reynolds number and other parameters over wide ranges of Mach number, pressure, and temperature, with due regard to avoiding liquefaction. Practical operational procedures were developed in a low-speed cryogenic tunnel. Aerodynamic experiments in the facility demonstrated the theoretically predicted variations in Reynolds number and drive power. The continuous-flow-fan-driven tunnel is shown to be particularly well suited to take full advantage of operating at cryogenic temperatures.

A method and apparatus for measuring the stagnation pressure of supersonic velocity gas streams without the generation of shock waves which interfere with such measurements are given. The technique is insensitive to the type of gas and Mach number and is therefore particularly useful in the study of jet engine exhausts.

This design eliminates the uncertainties in data from conventional transonic test sections. Sidewalls are rigid, and the flexible floor and ceiling are positioned by motorized jacks controlled by on-line computer to minimize run times. The tunnel-computer combination is self-streamlining without reference to the model. Data is taken from the model only when the walls are good streamlines, and is corrected for the small, known but inevitable residual interferences. Two-dimensional validation testing in the Mach range up to about 0.85 where the walls are just supercritical shows good agreement with reference data using a height:chord ratio of 1.5. Techniques are under development to extend Mach number above 1. This work has demonstrated the feasibility of almost eliminating wall interferences, improving flow quality, and reducing power requirements or increasing Reynolds number. Extensions to three-dimensional testing are outlined.

The technology which is required to allow the principles of magnetic suspension and balance systems (MSBS) to be applied to the high Reynolds number transonic testing of aircraft models is examined. A test facility is presented as comprising a pressurized transonic cryogenic wind tunnel, with the MSBS providing full six degree of freedom control. The electro-magnets which are superconducting and fed from quiet, bipolar power supplies are examined. A model control system having some self adaptive characteristics is discussed.

The characteristics and behavior of a 0.3m transonic cryogenic wind tunnel are discussed. The wide band of usable Reynolds numbers is analyzed along with a flow visualization technique using propane. The combination of magnetic suspension with the cryogenic wind tunnel is described. An outline of the circuit showing the locations of the magnet system and the features of the tunnel are presented.

The evolution in Europe of the flexible walled test section, as applied to two dimensional testing at low and transonic speeds, is traced from its beginnings at NPL, London, in the early 1940's, and is shown to lead logically to the latest version now nearing completion at Southampton University. The principal changes that have taken place are improvements in the methods of choosing wall contours such that they rapidly follow appropriate streamlines, and reductions in the depth of test sections. The latest transonic test section presently under assembly at Southampton has, as its principal new feature, the facility for the automation of wall streamlining with the aid of an on-line computer. The versatility of the flexible walled test section is emphasized by reference to the simulation of alternative flows including cascade, steady pitching in an infinite flowfield, and ground effect. Finally, sources of error in streamlining are identified, with methods for their alleviation.

The design and performance of a low speed one atmosphere cryogenic wind tunnel is described. The tunnel is fan driven and operates over the temperature range 305K to 77K at Mach numbers up to 0.28. It is cooled by the injection and evaporation of liquid nitrogen in the circuit, and the usual test gas is nitrogen. The tunnel has a square test section 0.1m across and was built to allow, at low costs, the development of testing techniques and the development of instrumentation for use in cryogenic tunnels, and to exploit in general instrumentation work the unusuallly wide range of unit Reynolds number available in such tunnels. The tunnel was first used in the development of surface flow visualization techniques for use at cryogenic temperatures.

Testing in the low speed flexible walled tunnel in an effort to explain the reasons for data discrepancies at high angles of attack are presented. Automated transonic test sections were developed. The flexible walled tunnel was used in a new operating mode to a generated curved flow around the airfoil, allowing the extraction of purely rotary derivatives. Some straight wall, low speed pressure data, for wall and model, which is used for checking interference correction methods were reported. Computer software which includes an old streamlining algorithm and a prediction algorithm was examined.

Comprehensive aerodynamic data on an airfoil section were obtained through a wide range of angles of attack, both stalled and unstalled. Data were gathered using a self streamlining wind tunnel and were compared to results obtained on the same section in a conventional wind tunnel. The reduction of wall interference through streamline was demonstrated.

It is shown that certain two dimensional bodies exist having a sensitivity of surface pressure to flow direction which is much higher than for currently used two dimensional yawmeters. A body having a simple cross sectional shape was selected for experimental evaluation at low Mach number, but at a typical Reynolds number for such instruments.

A method has been developed for accurately computing the imaginary flow fields outside a flexible walled test section, applicable to lifting and non-lifting models. The tolerances in the setting of the flexible walls introduce only small levels of aerodynamic interference at the model. While it is not possible to apply corrections for the interference effects, they may be reduced by improving the setting accuracy of the portions of wall immediately above and below the model. Interference effects of the truncation of the length of the streamlined portion of a test section are brought to an acceptably small level by the use of a suitably long test section with the model placed centrally.

A two dimensional test section in a low speed wind tunnel is producing flow conditions free from wall interference. The test section has flexible top and bottom walls, and rigid sidewalls from which the models are mounted spanning the tunnel. All walls are unperforated, and the flexible walls are positioned by screw jacks. To eliminate wall interference, the wind tunnel itself supplies the information required in this streamlining process, when run with the model present. Measurements taken at the flexible walls are used by the tunnel computer to check wall contours. When the static pressure distribution in the test section along a contoured flexible wall matches that computed for an imaginary flow field passing over the outside of the same contour, the wall is a streamline in an infinite flow field and the test section flow is free from wall interference. A series of iterations brings the walls from straight to streamlines. Illustrative aerodynamic data is presented, taken on a bluff body and a lifting wing.

Theoretical considerations indicate that cooling the wind-tunnel test gas to cryogenic temperatures will provide a large increase in test Reynolds number with no increase in dynamic pressure while reducing the tunnel drive-power requirements. Studies have been made to determine the expected variations of Reynolds number and other parameters over wide ranges of Mach number, pressure, and temperature with due regard to avoiding liquefaction and adverse real-gas effects. Practical operational procedures have been developed in a low-speed prototype cryogenic wind tunnel. Aerodynamic experiments in the facility have demonstrated the theoretically predicted variations in Reynolds number and drive power. Force and moment measurements on a wing model mounted on a water-jacketed strain-gage sting balance have demonstrated the feasibility of operation of such balances in a cryogenic environment.

Probe was developed which is capable of recording true stagnation pressure in supersonic and subsonic flows. Static pressure orifices in the compression surface allow probe to be used as combined flow direction and stagnation pressure sensor.