Department of Aerospace Engineering, University of Glasgow
Abstract
The following report summarises a three year research programme in the Department of Aerospace Engineering, University of Glasgow to collect unsteady pressure data on the dynamic stalling characteristics of finite wing planforms. The original motivation for the work lay in the pressing need for a greater understanding of the strongly three-dimensional effects in the tip region of helicopter rotors. In this study, a new data collection system capable of sampling 200 parallel channels at up to 50kHz per channel has been developed. Additionally, a new support structure, actuation mechanism and hydraulic supply system was established for the test programme. Together, these new systems were used to conduct tests on two wing planforms; a straight rectangular wing and a rectangular wing with 60° swept tips. A final model, of a 60° delta wing, is currently being instrumented and will be tested in January 1996. Although the emphasis of the original proposal was on data collection, analysis of preliminary results has been presented at the European Rotorcraft Forum and a related paper is currently being reviewed for publication in a journal. The pressure data collected are of extremely high quality and are the most detailed of their type currently available. In addition, these have been supplement by extensive flow visualisation tests using a state of the art image capturing system. The resulting combined data set has highlighted many of the salient features of three-dimensional dynamic stall and, as originally intended, should provide a basis for future research in this area
