LDA system for in-flight local velocity measurements on airplanewings

摘要

The development of laminar wing technology requires wind tunnelstudies with numerical flow simulations and in-flight measurements. Astrategy for in-flight flow measurements is outlined. It is shown thatlaser Doppler anemometry (LDA) is well suited for providing the desiredlocal velocity information, but must be specifically adapted for thevarious spatial, geometrical, and power constraints imposed by the testaircraft. This program yielded two optical units suitable for in-flightvelocity measurements on airplane wings. Laboratory and free flightmeasurements studying boundary layer transition on an airplane wingdownstream of an excitation source were successfully carried out and asummary of results is presented. Finally, suggestions for furtheradvancements of LDA systems are proposed