Abstract
Abstract Previous theories dealing with the interference of wind-tunnel boundaries on airfoil characteristics have in general neglected the distortion of the lift distribution along the span caused by the presence of the boundaries. In the present paper this effect is considered and the general equations for a monoplane wing in a circular wind tunnel, with either closed or open working section, are developed. As an example, the case of an untwisted wing of elliptical plan form is considered in detail, and numerical results are obtained from which curves are plotted giving the more important interference effects. It is found that, at least for this case, the distortion of the lift distribution is rather surprisingly small and has an unimportant influence on the customary interference factors. It is concluded that the simple Prandtl type of correction is satisfactory for all practical cases in which the lack of uniformity of the airstream or the size of the airfoil chord does not become excessive.
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