22nd Congress of International Council of the Aeronautical Sciences, Harrogate, UK, 28 August - 1st September, 2000
Paper ICAS 2000-3.7.2

OVERCOMING THE CHALLENGES OF DESIGNING MANUFACTURING AND TESTING OF CRYOGENIC WIND TUNNEL MODELS

P. J. White (1), I. A. Price (1), M. J. Simmons (2), R. S. Sale (3)
(1) Airbus UK; (2) DERA Aerodynamics Dept., UK; (3) Aircraft Research Association, UK

Keywords: model testing, cryogenic wind-tunnel

A collaborative research programme known as ATTACH 2000 (Advanced Turbulent Technology Applied to Civil transport aircraft – High speed) was conducted by Airbus UK and the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA) investigating aspects of high Reynolds number aerodynamics. The programme, part funded by the Department of Trade and Industry under the CARAD (Civil Aircraft Research And Development) programme, involved testing state-of-the-art wing designs optimised for different Reynolds numbers. The requirement was to test different wing designs on a common fuselage, each extensively pressure plotted. The model was to be tested in the DERA 8ft high-speed wind tunnel, Bedford and in the European Transonic Wind Tunnel (ETW), Cologne. Cryogenic models such as these present many challenges and during design, manufacture and testing phases of the project, several problems were encountered and overcome. This paper will discuss experience gained on items such as: • Designing for cryogenic conditions • Achieving model build repeatability and interchangeability • Instrumentation for cryogenic conditions • Achieving strength requirements • Finite element analysis and stress calculations • Tolerance requirements for cryogenic models • Installation of pressure plotting • Transition band application • Vibration problems with models of this type • High speed testing

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