Abstract
Since the first powered flight by Wright brothers, wind tunnel has been one of key ground test facilities required for development of aircraft and space vehicles. In Japan, large-scale industrial wind tunnels were developed and have been operated by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, JAXA. To keep and increase the capabilities of the tunnels, maintenance of the facilities and research and development on advanced testing and measurement technologies were being done continuously. In this article, four major industrial wind tunnels in JAXA covering low to hypersonic speed ranges are introduced with new aerothermodynamic/aeroacoustic measurement techniques such as pressure-sensitive paint (PSP), particle image velocimetry (PIV), CT-reconstructed schlieren imaging, and microphone-array technique. Also, described are activities to improve data accuracy and data productivity as well as data uncertainty analysis. Finally, as an activity towards future integration between experimental fluid dynamics (EFD) and computational fluid dynamics (CFD), development of ‘Digital/Analogue-Hybrid Wind Tunnel’ which is under way is presented.
