State of the art in circuit loss analysis of transonic wind tunnels

Abstract

An overview on the state of the art in circuit loss analysis of transonic wind tunnels is presented. Starting with a review of the experiences learned from several important transonic wind tunnel projects of the past, the discussions are focussed on the capabilities and accuracy of new computer code for prediction of pressure losses of subsonic and transonic wind tunnel circuits. This code has recently been developed in order to support wind tunnel and compressor designers with accurate pressure loss data in a very early design stage where experimental data are usually not available. The basic concept of the new method is described briefly and computational results are presented for several large transonic facilities. In this context, special attention is payed to the development of the U.S. National Transonic Facility (NTF) and the European Transonic Wind Tunnel (ETW). The comparison of the computed results with available experimental data shows that the new code accurately predicts circuit losses in the complete operating range of transonic wind tunnels.