wind tunnels and the ati technology infrastructure strategy · wind tunnels and the ati technology...

Wind Tunnels and the ATI Technology Infrastructure Strategy

Dr. Simon Prince

Royal Aeronautical Society Conference on Wind Tunnel Capabilities.

19th October 1015.

Overview

• 1. The Role of Wind Tunnels: “We Don’t Need Wind Tunnels Any More !!!” – Destroying the fallacy

• 2. Trends in UK provision of wind tunnels.

• 3. The ATI Strategy for aerospace wind tunnel investment.

• 4. The future.

15 February, 2016 2

1. The Role of Wind Tunnels

The fallacy

• Wind Tunnels are too expensive to maintain and operate !!!

• Computational analysis is cheap !!!

• Computational analysis is accurate !!!

• Decommission the wind tunnel – invest in computers !!!

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The fallacy

• Example: Aerodata required for design and verification of missile dynamics / automatic control system.

• ~ 300,000 data points (6 components of force/moment = f(a,b,M,Re,d )

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* includes model design and manufacture, tunnel run time and data processing services

# based on use of a 64 processor cluster

Time to

completion

Physical Accuarcy

(forces &

moments)

Experiment (Wind Tunnel Test) 300,000 6 months 2 weeks ~ £ 1million * ~ £ 1million ~ 6 months within 1%

MethodSet-up time

(from scratch)Run timeData points

Study (CPU and

processing) cost

(£)

Cost for full

300k data

points (£)

Computation (RANS)

Computation (Steady Euler)

24

24

5 weeks £2,600 £32,500,000 ~ 420 months # within 3%

3 weeks 580 hours £1,800 £22,500,000 ~ 170 months # within 20%

1440 hours


Wind Tunnel Testing is vital because

• Computational flow data cannot be physically correct.

• Turbulence !!!!

• Therefore need for physical data for model validation.

• Computational cost for very large data sets too expensive (time and money)

• Etc. etc.

15 February, 2016 5

The wind tunnel remains a vital component of the aerodynamics toolkit.

2. Trends in UK provision of wind tunnels. History: Snapshot from 1977 compared with 2013

1977: 240 Facilities across government, industry and academia.

• State - State provision of wind tunnel test services: RAE, NPL etc,

including: 24ft low speed WT at Farnborough

8ft supersonic / transonic WT at Bedford

Altitude test cells at Pyestock.

• Aircraft Research Association – industry subscription for high speed testing.

including: Transonic Wind Tunnel.

• Industry – Multiple Rolls-Royce sites, multiple British Aerospace (BAC / HS) sites including major altitude engine test beds, supersonic and hypersonic facilities.

• Academia - Many academic facilities but most small scale.

National strategy: programs of RAE / NPL etc., (CARAD, BERP, National High Lift).

15 February, 2016 6

2. Trends in UK provision of wind tunnels.

History: Snapshot from 1977 compared with 2013

2013: 180 Facilities across industry and academia.

• State - No State provision of wind tunnel test services

DERA privatized etc.

• Aircraft Research Association – still very active.

Transonic Wind Tunnel (TWT) now one of most active transonic facilities

in the world.

• Industry – A few industrial scale wind tunnels survive.

• Academia – Very many fewer large scale test facilities

eg: Manchester Goldstein lab closure.

Highly fragmented capability – no national strategic leadership.

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What we have today

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Subsonic – plenty

Transonic – only 2 industrial scale

Supersonic / Hypersonic – all presently in academia Chronic – too many of these

3. The ATI Strategy: wind tunnel investment.

The UK must invest to protect and develop its testing capability

In 2013 we:

• Established a national database of aerodynamics test facilities. (www.ati.org/facilities).

• Established an investment plan which: • Develops a world leading aerospace wind tunnel testing capability.

• Is sustainable in the long term.

• Is affordable.

• Identified key strategic test facilities for investment.

15 February, 2016 9


Investment plan:

• Focus public research funding on only key strategic testing facilities which should be open access to all, to: • Maximise impact of limited funds to maintain a small network of world leading capability.

• Promote collaborative research and technology development.

• Provide a sustainable capability.

• Maximise data quality.

• Defragment existing landscape around a coherent national strategy.

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Criterion for strategic facility status:

• Relevance of facility to the ATI national technology strategy.

• “Quality” of facility (tunnel, rigs, instrumentation and people).

• Demonstrated track record in delivery of high quality research and technology development output (10 years).

• Recent organizational investment in testing capability (tunnel, instrumentation and skilled people).



Category of strategic facility status:

• General low speed. (eg: High Lift / Landing gear test etc.)

• Aeroacoustics test.

• Icing test.

• Transonic.

• Supersonic / Hypersonic*.

General policy to invest in at least two facilities in each category to ensure sufficient redundancy, and long term capability security.



The ATI Strategic Wind Tunnel Test Facilities: Low Speed


Industrial Facilities:

• Airbus Filton 12 x 10ft Low Speed Wind Tunnel

• BAe Systems 4m Low Speed Wind Tunnel

• QinetiQ 5m Low Speed Wind Tunnel

University Facilities:

• City University Gastor Low Turbulence Wind Tunnel*

• Cranfield University 8ft x 6ft Low Speed Wind Tunnel*

• Cranfield University 8ft x 4ft Low Speed Wind Tunnel*

• Imperial College Honda Low Speed Wind Tunnel*

• University of Glasgow De Havilland Wind Tunnel*

• University of Manchester Boundary Layer Wind Tunnel

• University of Southampton R.J.Mitchell Wind Tunnel* • Indicates test facilities

included in the EPSRC National Wind Tunnel Facility


The ATI Strategic Wind Tunnel Test Facilities: Aeroacoustics



• QinetiQ Noise Test Facility


• University of Cambridge Markham Wind Tunnel

• University of Southampton DOAK Aeroacoustics Facility


The ATI Strategic Wind Tunnel Test Facilities: Icing



• GKN Aerospace Icing Wind Tunnel

• MIRA Climatic Wind Tunnel 1/2


• Cranfield University Icing Tunnel*


The ATI Strategic Wind Tunnel Test Facilities: Transonic



• ARA Transonic Wind Tunnel

• BAe Systems 1.2m Transonic Wind Tunnel

• European Transonic Wind Tunnel

• ARA Small Scale Wind Tunnel

• (ARA 2D Wind Tunnel)


• University of Cambridge Supersonic Wind Tunnel 1&2*

• City University T5 Transonic Wind Tunnel*

• University of Manchester Polysonic Wind Tunnel

() Indicates moth balled test facilities.


The ATI Strategic Wind Tunnel Test Facilities: Super/Hypersonic



• (ARA Supersonic Wind Tunnel).

• (ARA M4 Transonic / Supersonic Wind Tunnel).

• (BAe Systems Guided Weapons Tunnel).


• Cranfield University Hypersonic Gun Tunnel

• Imperial College Hypersonic Gun Tunnel*

• University of Manchester HSST Polysonic Wind Tunnel

• University of Oxford High Density Tunnel*

• University of Oxford Hypersonic Gun Tunnel*

• University of Oxford Low Density Tunnel*


ATI Capital Investment to Date


ARA Transonic Wind Tunnel £5.05 million

National Rotor Testing Rig £3.6 million

EPSRC National Wind Tunnel Test Facility £2.9 million

4. The future.

ATI national wind tunnel strategy:

• Informed by: ATI Infrastructure Specialist Advisory Group

ATI Aerodynamics Specialist Advisory Group

• Reviewed periodically.

Future investment:

• Investment to protect industrial testing capability.

• Possible further investment in the NWTF.

• Possible investment in a National Propulsion Test Facility.


Thanks for listening

Questions ?



Low Speed Wind Tunnels



Transonic Wind Tunnels



Supersonic Wind Tunnels



Hypersonic Wind Tunnels


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