Читать книгу Introduction to Flight Testing - James W. Gregory - Страница 19

In many instances, the highest‐quality scientific research can only be done in actual flight. Even though wind tunnels are commonly available, results from these facilities are always limited in some way – facility effects such as streamwise pressure gradients in the test section, wall boundary layer effects, test section blockage, turbulence intensity level, constraints on model size, lack of Mach and/or Reynolds scaling, etc. are always present (see Tavoularis 2005 or Barlow et al. 1999 for a discussion of wind tunnels and their limitations). Similarly, computational fluid dynamics simulations are inherently limited in their ability to model viscous, unsteady separated flows, particularly when the model – such as a full aircraft – is large (see Cummings et al. 2015 for the limitations on computational aerodynamics). Grid resolution, turbulence modeling strategies, and time‐accurate solutions will always need validation of some kind. Thus, the ultimate proof of scientific principles associated with flight is to actually conduct experiments in flight.

The range of scientific experiments that can be studied via flight testing can be very broad and conducted by government labs, universities, and industry. University flight test efforts have included Purdue University's development of pressure‐sensitive paint (PSP) for in‐flight measurements of chordwise surface pressure distribution on an aircraft wing (Figure 1.7). The advantage of PSP is that there is minimal flow intrusiveness, compared to the traditional pressure belts mounted on top of the wing, which are banded and flexible tubes. Furthermore, it is much simpler to instrument the aircraft with PSP, since no tubing has to be run into the fuselage and connected to pressure transducers. In fact, the production Beechjet 400 shown in Figure 1.7 was returned to normal flight under its regular airworthiness certification immediately following flight testing (Lachendro 2000).

Another leading flight test program for scientific research is the University of Notre Dame's Airborne Aero‐optics flight research program (Jumper et al. 2015). Researchers at Notre Dame, led by Prof. Eric Jumper and Prof. Stanislav Gordeyev, study approaches for correcting optical aberrations to laser beams propagating through unsteady shear flows and turbulence. Their active correction schemes allow them to focus a laser beam emitted from one aircraft on the fuselage of a target aircraft such as the Dassault Falcon 10 shown in Figure 1.8. These concepts are used for applications ranging from optical air‐to‐air communications to directed energy for military applications.

The US government is also active with scientific research enabled by flight testing programs. One notable example is NASA's F‐18 high alpha research vehicle (HARV). The goal of the first phase of this program was to understand vortex formation, trajectory, and breakdown on the F‐18 operated at high angle of attack. The specially instrumented F‐18 had tufts (short pieces of yarn) taped to the top of the wing, smoke tracer particles released from orifices near the nose, dye flow visualization, and hundreds of pressure taps. These various techniques were used to study local flow separation and vortex trajectories. In‐flight measurements, shown in Figure 1.9, clearly documented the formation of vortices on the leading‐edge extension (LEX) of the F‐18 at high angle of attack, the trajectory of these vortices, and the specific location of vortex breakdown. The vortex breakdown phenomenon, when occurring in the vicinity of the aft tail, led to significant tail buffeting and issues with fatigue (see Fisher et al. 1990).

Figure 1.7 Inspection of pressure‐sensitive paint on Purdue University's Beechjet 400 following a flight test in 1999 (depicted left to right are Hirotaka Sakaue, Brian Stirm, and Jim Gregory).

Source: Photo courtesy of Nate Lachendro.

Figure 1.8 Notre Dame's Dassault Falcon 10.

Source: U.S. Air Force.

Figure 1.9 Smoke and tuft flow visualization on the NASA F‐18 High Alpha Research Vehicle at an angle of attack of 20°.

Source: NASA.