The Encoding of Air Data in Distributed Pressure

Project Status: Archived

Investigator


Description

The accurate measurement of air data is critical to the flight control, guidance, and post flight analysis of flight vehicles. Five parameters: Mach number (M), angle of attack, angle of sideslip, free-stream static pressure, and the true airspeed can describe the entire air data state. Historically, air data have been measured through the use of intrusive booms or probes that penetrate the flow away from the influence of the vehicle body to measure total and static pressure, angle of attack, angle of sideslip, and free-stream temperature. However, specialized requirements of advanced vehicles, particularly those designed for hypersonic speed regime, using intrusive conventional air data measurement systems highly undesirable. The flush air data sensing (FADS) system concept, in which air data are inferred from nonintrusive surface pressure measurements, was developed to circumvent many of the difficulties with intrusive air data systems. However, current air data systems suffer from inherent sensor lag, poor dynamic response, and lack of sensitivity at low speeds and high altitudes and burdensome calibration requirements. Having an accurate, high-frequency response air data system could improve air vehicle flight and fuel efficiency and increase the likelihood of success for precision payload delivery. A blunted tangent ogive cone cylinder test model integrated with quick response pressure transducers will be designed and tested in the FSU polysonic wind tunnel (PSWT). The PSWT is capable of operating in the Mach number regime of 0.2 to 5 including transonic speeds and produces a unit Reynolds number of 30 million/ft. The facility features two separate test sections: 1) 12-inch x 12-inch x 24-inch test section with solid walls for sub/supersonic Mach number testing, and 2) 12-inch x 12-inch x 48-inch with slotted walls for testing in the transonic speed regime. The facility is equipped with necessary instrumentation and data acquisition system to perform this study.