Pressure sensitive paint evaluation on a supercritical wing at cruise speed

A comparative wind tunnel test of various Pressure Sensitive Paint (PSP) formulations has been performed at the Institute for Aerospace Research (IAR) 1.5 m × 1.5 m Trisonic Blowdown Wind Tunnel. The model under study is a prototype supercritical wing of a half model. The results are presented at the cruise Mach number: M = 0.74. The effect of the Reynolds number on the pressure distribution is assessed by varying the stagnation pressure of the flow. The evaluated paints all use the same porphyrin molecule as the luminescent sensor and the differences in sensitivity to pressure and temperature are a result of the PSP binder, which differs for each formulation. Examples of the processed results are given and the accuracy of the different PSP formulations is also discussed.