Treating temperature-sensitivity effects of pressure-sensitive paint measurements

Abstract

While pressure-sensitive paint (PSP) is evolving into a viable alternative to conventional pressure taps for surface pressure measurements, the inherent temperature-sensitivity of the coating’s fluorescence intensity is a prominent drawback. Unless the PSP is applied to a temporally and spatially isothermal surface, this inherent temperature-sensitivity effect severely limits the accuracy of the two-dimensional pressure distribution obtained from the coating. In this study, the pressure- and temperature-sensitivity effects of three commonly used PSPs and two temperature-sensitive paints (TSPs) are evaluated over pressure and temperature ranges found in many compressible flow experiments. In addition, four PSP data reduction methods are compared by applying PSP to a transverse jet-in-crossflow experiment. Each data reduction method encompasses a different degree of temperature correction. Conventional pressure tap measurements are used to evaluate the accuracy of each method.