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.
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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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1. The Role of Wind Tunnels
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%
Method Set-up time
(from scratch) Run time Data 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
1. The Role of Wind Tunnels
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.
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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).
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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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2. Trends in UK provision of wind tunnels.
What we have today
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Subsonic – plenty
Transonic – only 2 industrial scale
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.
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3. The ATI Strategy: wind tunnel investment.
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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3. The ATI Strategy: wind tunnel investment.
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).
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3. The ATI Strategy: wind tunnel investment.
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.
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3. The ATI Strategy: wind tunnel investment.
The ATI Strategic Wind Tunnel Test Facilities: Low Speed
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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
3. The ATI Strategy: wind tunnel investment.
The ATI Strategic Wind Tunnel Test Facilities: Aeroacoustics
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Industrial Facilities:
• QinetiQ Noise Test Facility University Facilities:
• University of Cambridge Markham Wind Tunnel
3. The ATI Strategy: wind tunnel investment.
The ATI Strategic Wind Tunnel Test Facilities: Icing
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Industrial Facilities:
• GKN Aerospace Icing Wind Tunnel
• MIRA Climatic Wind Tunnel 1/2
University Facilities:
3. The ATI Strategy: wind tunnel investment.
The ATI Strategic Wind Tunnel Test Facilities: Transonic
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Industrial Facilities:
• 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 Facilities:
• 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.
3. The ATI Strategy: wind tunnel investment.
The ATI Strategic Wind Tunnel Test Facilities: Super/Hypersonic
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Industrial Facilities:
• (ARA Supersonic Wind Tunnel).
• (ARA M4 Transonic / Supersonic Wind Tunnel).
• (BAe Systems Guided Weapons Tunnel).
University Facilities:
• 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*
3. The ATI Strategy: wind tunnel investment.
ATI Capital Investment to Date
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ARA Transonic Wind Tunnel £5.05 million
National Rotor Testing Rig £3.6 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.
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Thanks for listening
Questions ?
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2. Trends in UK provision of wind tunnels.
Low Speed Wind Tunnels
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2. Trends in UK provision of wind tunnels.
Transonic Wind Tunnels
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2. Trends in UK provision of wind tunnels.
Supersonic Wind Tunnels
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2. Trends in UK provision of wind tunnels.
Hypersonic Wind Tunnels
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