Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 1982. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND AERO / Includes bibliographical references. / by Wen Liu. / M.S.

A wing with a Wortmann FX-63-137-ESM airfoil section has been used to study some unique problems encountered in wing aerodynamics in the range of Reynolds numbers between 50,000 and 500,000. The wind-tunnel testing conducted in the 6'x 6' Stability tunnel included strain-gauge data, pressure data, and flow-visualization studies. The laminar separation bubble which frequently occurs on the upper surface of the wing is found to dominate its performance and gives rise to a hysteresis loop for lift and drag. Changes in airfoil performance due to positive flap or control surface deflections resemble changes witnessed at higher Reynolds numbers. Negative deflections are seen to considerably change the stall behavior and the flow over the airfoil. This is due to the considerably greater effect on the separation bubble for negative flap deflections. The structure and mechanism of the laminar separation bubble can also be altered by the introduction of selected acoustic disturbance and increased free-stream turbulence. The wind-tunnel test-section environment is, therefore, capable of considerably altering wing performance in this regime. / Ph. D. / incomplete_metadata

The measurement of wind tunnel flow quality for the transonic flow regime has been plagued by the inability to interpret complex unsteady flow field information obtained in the free stream. Traditionally hot wire anemometry and fluctuating pressure techniques have been used to quantify the unsteady characteristics of a wind tunnel. This research focuses on the application of these devices to the transonic flow regime. Utilizing hot wire anemometry, one can decompose the unsteady flow field with a three sensor technique, to obtain fluctuations associated with the velocity, density, and total temperature. Implementing thermodynamic and kinematic equations, new methods for expanding the measured velocity, density, and total temperature fluctuations to obtain additional fluctuations are investigated. The derived static pressure fluctuations are compared to the static pressure fluctuations obtained with a conventional fluctuating static pressure probe. The results of this comparison are good, which implies that the individual velocity, density, and total temperature components are time accurate. In the process of obtaining a high quality fluctuating flow field information, it was necessary to evaluate the calibration of the hot wire sensors. A direct calibration approach was compared to a conventional non-dimensional technique. These two calibration techniques should have resulted in the same hot wire sensitivities. There were significant differences in the hot wire sensitivities as obtained from the two approaches. The direct approach was determined to have less errors due to the added heat transfer information required of the indirect approach. Both calibration techniques demonstrated that the velocity and density sensitivities were in general not equal. This suggests that the velocity and density information cannot be combined to form a mass flow. A comparison of several hot wire techniques was included to highlight the errors obtained when assuming that these sensitivities are the same. An evaluation of the free stream flow quality associated with a Laminar Flow Control experiment was carried out in the Langley Research Center 8-Foot Transonic Pressure Tunnel (8' TPT). The facility was modified with turbulence manipulators and a liner that provided a flow field around a yawed super-critical airfoil that is conducive to transition research. These devices are evaluated to determine the sources of disturbances associated with the LFC experiment. / Ph. D.

Subsonic wind tunnel investigations were conducted on a 60° swept, flat plate, delta wing with a leading edge vortex flap. The pressure distributions were measured over a range of angles of attack starting from zero to 40° in 5° interval and flap deflection angles from zero to 45° with 5° increments at a Reynolds number of about 2.14 x 10‘ based on the root chord. The flow visualization experiments were performed from zero degree to the stall angle, with ten different flap deflection angles at the same Reynolds number. The mean flow field was measured at angles of attack l0° and 15° with the flap deflection angles of l0° and 30° at a Reynolds number of about 1.50 x 10°. The experimental results shows that the leading edge vortex flap is an effective means to control the vortex flow over a delta wing. The optimum flap deflection angles were found where the primary vortex was confined to the leading edge vortex flap, thus producing a thrust on the flap. It was found that flap deflection could be used to restore a vortex flow from burst vortex condition. / Ph. D. / incomplete_metadata