Summary of the 1977 USAF/OSR/ASEE Summer Design Study Program on theintegration of wind tunnels and computers

Abstract

The Summer Design Study Group studied the present and future status of the integration of computers with wind tunnels. The study was begun with a series of presentations made to the group by industry, government, and university workers in the field, whose backgrounds covered a broad spectrum of viewpoints and experience from computer design, theoretical analysis, computational aerodynamics, wind tunnel technology, and flight vehicle design. An extensive literature survey and review was then undertaken. The Design Study focused primarily on the following aspects: exploration of the present state of computational fluid dynamics and its impact on the design cycle and computer requirements for future developments in this field; the increase in productivity and efficiency which experimental facilities can achieve by a close integration with computers ; improvements in simulation quality of wind tunnels possible in conjunction with computer control; research experiments necessary to provice a better understanding of the physics of fluid flow and to assist in the modeling of these phenomena by computational methods, with primary emphasis on turbulent flows. A Steering Committee, whose membership represented a spectrum of specialized talents from universities and governmental agencies, assisted the Technical Director in delineating the scope of this study.