Wind tunnel measurements of dynamic aerodynamic coefficients using a freely rotating test bench

Abstract

Purpose This paper aims to propose a dedicated measurement methodology able to simultaneously determine the stability derivative Cmα̇ and the pitch damping coefficient sum Cmq + Cmα̇ in a wind tunnel using a single and almost non-intrusive metrological setup called MiRo. Design/methodology/approach To assess the MiRo method’s reliability, repeatability and accuracy, the measurements obtained with this technique are compared to other sources like aerodynamic balance measurements, alternative wind tunnel measurements, Ludwieg tube measurements, free-flight measurements and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. Two different numerical approaches are compared and used to validate the MiRo method. The first numerical method forces the projectile to describe a pure oscillation motion with small amplitude along the pitch axis during a rectilinear flight, whereas the second numerical approach couples the one degrees of freedom simulation motion equations with CFD methods. Findings MiRo, a novel and almost non-intrusive technique for dynamic wind tunnel measurements, has been validated by comparison with five other experimental and numerical methodologies. Despite two completely different approaches, both numerical methods give almost identical results and show that the holding system has nearly no impact on the dynamic aerodynamic coefficients. Therefore, it could be assessed that the attitude of MiRo model in the wind tunnel is very close to the free-flight one. Originality/value The MiRo method allows studying the attitude of a projectile in a wind tunnel with the least possible impact on the flow around a model.