Time-resolved Surface Pressure Measurements Research Articles

Characterisation of the flow around passenger vehicle wheels with varying tyre profiles

The flow around wheels contributes to a significant part of the aerodynamic drag of passenger vehicles, which is crucial for overall energy efficiency. The rotation and bluff-body geometry of the wheels result in a complex flow field that is sensitive to geometrical variations such as the tyre geometry, tread pattern, tyre deformation and rim design.In this work, wind tunnel tests were performed with a full-scale crossover SUV, using two rim configurations and three tyres. Utilising flow field measurements and time-resolved surface pressure measurements, the main features of the flow were identified for three sets of tyres with distinct shoulder profiles and sidewall geometry. The main differences were found close to the ground. With a narrower sidewall, a smaller contact patch vortex was formed, reducing the drag. Combining the narrow sidewall with a narrow tread, the more rounded shoulder created a larger contact patch vortex and pronounced the vortex from the outer downstream tyre shoulder.Comparing closed and open rims, the same overall flow mechanisms were observed but their relative importance was altered. An interaction between the tyre and rim design was found, mainly in terms of how the front wheel wakes affect the rear wheels.

Flutter in a simplified blade cascade: Limits of the quasi-steady approximation

Flow-induced vibration in turbomachinery represents a major and persistent concern, especially in modern turbine and compressor designs with long and slender blades operating in transonic flow conditions. There is a wide range of computational and experimental methods for blade flutter prediction and analysis. In certain situations, the quasi-steady approximation can be utilized, considering the unsteady flow as a sequence of steady flow fields for each position of the oscillation cycle. The study is focused on experimental investigation of the limits of applicability of the quasisteady approximation in the case of a simplified linear five-blade cascade with the middle blade undergoing high-frequency torsional oscillation due to kinematic excitation. A measurement campaign of more than 100 wind tunnel runs was carried out for flow velocities ranging from high subsonic to transonic regimes (M = 0, 0.529, 0.777 and 1.018), frequency ratios 0 - 0.75 and reduced frequencies k = 0 – 0.41. A comparison of quasi-steady and time-resolved blade surface pressure measurements is reported, and the degree of unsteadiness of the airflow is quantified. For low reduced frequencies the stationary distributions match almost perfectly the time-resolved profiles. The degree of unsteadiness remains below 2% up to k = 0.1 for the subsonic and supercritical flow regimes. For reduced frequencies above 0.2, the global degree of unsteadiness increases quickly up to 10%, with local differences between the stationary and time-resolved pressure profiles up to 40%. In the case of transonic flow regime, the flow unsteadiness is generally higher and further complicated by intermittency — stochastic transition from supersonic to subsonic flow in the aft part of the blade.

Aerodynamic Characterization of a Full-Scale Compact Car Exposed to Transient Crosswind

The transient surface pressure over a full-scale, operational compact automotive vehicle—a Volkswagen Golf 7—exposed to transient crosswinds with relative yaw angles of β = 22-45° has been characterized. Experiments were performed at the BMW side-wind facility in Aschheim, Germany. Measurements of the incoming flow in front of the car were taken with eleven five-hole dynamic pressure probes, and separately, time-resolved surface pressure measurements at 188 locations were performed. Unsteady characteristics (not able to be identified in quasi-steady modelling) have been identified: the flow in separated regions on the vehicle’s leeward side takes longer to develop than at the windward side, and spatially, the vehicle experiences local crosswind as it gradually enters the crosswind. The total effects of these localized unsteady pressure characteristics have also been predicted to affect the vehicle globally, with the evaluation of the transient forces and moments—through pressure integration—exhibiting unsteady characteristics of overshoots, undershoots, and temporal lag; relative to steady crosswind. These results provide new insight into both the characteristics and the causes of the unsteady crosswind response of a real, operational vehicle operating in real-world conditions. This insight can be used in the design of future vehicles to make them less sensitive to unsteady gusts. Further these results can be used to develop and validate numerical and reduced-scale experimental methods that can test and assess new vehicle geometry designs during the early stages of vehicle development.

Airfoil flow receptivity to simulated tonal noise emissions

On airfoils at low to moderate Reynolds numbers, trailing edge sound can have a feedback effect on the development of instability waves resulting in strongly periodic vortex shedding and tonal noise. This complex problem is decoupled in this study to investigate the flow response to deterministic noise emissions. The flow receptivity and response to tonal noise are examined using controlled steady and transient acoustic excitation. Experiments are performed on a NACA 0018 airfoil at a Reynolds number of 1.15×105 and an angle of attack of 5°, with a separation bubble on the suction side. Controlled acoustic perturbations are introduced via a loudspeaker. A combination of mean and time-resolved surface pressure and simultaneous high-speed particle image velocimetry measurements provides insight into the response of the bubble to simulated acoustic forcing. Amplification of shear layer perturbations in the fore portion of the separation bubble is observed only after some time delay from the onset of acoustic forcing. This places the receptivity region within the boundary layer upstream of the separation bubble, extending from the leading edge to just downstream of the suction peak. The acoustically excited perturbations in the receptivity region attain higher amplitudes than natural disturbances and are amplified significantly in the separation bubble, leading to a transient reduction in the separation bubble size. Results elucidate the ensuing transient response of the separation bubble, illustrating the flow dynamics expected during the initiation of the acoustic feedback loop during natural tonal noise emissions on an airfoil.

Spectral analysis modal methods (SAMMs) using non-time-resolved PIV

We present spectral analysis modal methods (SAMMs) to perform POD in the frequency domain using non-time-resolved particle image velocity (PIV) data combined with unsteady surface pressure measurements. In particular, time-resolved unsteady surface pressure measurements are synchronized with non-time-resolved planar PIV measurements acquired at 15 Hz in a Mach 0.6 cavity flow. Leveraging the spectral linear stochastic estimation (LSE) method of Tinney et al. (Exp Fluids 41:763–775, 2006), we first estimate the cross-correlations between the velocity field and the unsteady pressure sensors via sequential time shifts, followed by a Fast Fourier transform to obtain the pressure–velocity cross spectral density matrix. This leads to a linear multiple-input/multiple-output (MIMO) model that determines the optimal transfer functions between the input cavity wall pressure and the output velocity field. Two variants of SAMMs are developed and applied. The first, termed “SAMM-SPOD”, combines the MIMO model with the SPOD algorithm of Towne et al. (J Fluid Mech, https://doi.org/10.1017/jfm.2018.283, 2018). The second, called “SAMM-RR”, adds independent sources and uses a sorted eigendecomposition of the input pressure cross-spectral matrix to enable an efficient reduced-rank eigendecomposition of the velocity cross-spectral matrix. In both cases, the resulting rank-1 POD eigenvalues associated with the Rossiter frequencies exhibit very good agreement with those obtained using independent time-resolved PIV measurements. The results demonstrate that SAMMs provide a methodology to perform space-time POD without requiring a high-speed PIV system, while avoiding potential pitfalls associated with traditional time-domain LSE.

Modeling the interplay between the shear layer and leading edge suction during dynamic stall

The dynamic stall development on a pitching airfoil at Re = 106 was investigated by time-resolved surface pressure and velocity field measurements. Two stages were identified in the dynamic stall development based on the shear layer evolution. In the first stage, the flow detaches from the trailing edge and the separation point moves gradually upstream. The second stage is characterized by the roll up of the shear layer into a large scale dynamic stall vortex. The two-stage dynamic stall development was independently confirmed by global velocity field and local surface pressure measurements around the leading edge. The leading edge pressure signals were combined into a single leading edge suction parameter. We developed an improved model of the leading edge suction parameter based on thin airfoil theory that links the evolution of the leading edge suction and the shear layer growth during stall development. The shear layer development leads to a change in the effective camber and the effective angle of attack. By taking into account this twofold influence, the model accurately predicts the value and timing of the maximum leading edge suction on a pitching airfoil. The evolution of the experimentally obtained leading edge suction was further analyzed for various sinusoidal motions revealing an increase in the critical value of the leading edge suction parameter with increasing pitch unsteadiness. The characteristic dynamic stall delay decreases with increasing unsteadiness, and the dynamic stall onset is best assessed by critical values of the circulation and the shear layer height which are motion independent.

Unsteady pressure analysis of the near wall flow downstream of the front wheel of a passenger car under yaw conditions

The flow around passenger cars is complex and is characterized by many different structures and interactions. The occurring flow phenomena around a car determine crucial vehicle properties such as the driving stability, the noise level, the aerodynamic performance and the vehicle contamination. Therefore, it is of high importance to increase the understanding of the developing flow phenomena. Generic models are widely used to investigate flow structures and their interactions, but cannot serve to derive a general flow field for detailed full-scale vehicle models. A particularly complex area is the flow around the wheels and its interaction with the vehicle geometry. Studies on wheel-wheelhouse flow focus mainly on the geometrical influence of the wheel size, rim and tyre on the aerodynamic drag and the flow field close to the wheel. The present work investigates the flow behind the front wheel arch of a full-scale passenger car. Time resolved surface pressure measurements were taken to study the near wall flow under different yaw conditions. Based on the data obtained, flow structures are identified and their propagation speed is calculated. Further, characteristic frequencies observed are discussed. It is found that coherent structures are present behind the front wheel arch, one above the wheel centre height and one below it. These remain even under large yaw angles, no matter if the vehicle is yawed to lee- or windward. The investigation further shows that two characteristic frequencies can be found, St=0.03 and St=0.2, whereby the latter is caused by the wheel rotation. The same frequencies also occur under yaw conditions, but yawing the measurement area to leeward results in less pronounced frequency peaks.

Critical evolution of leading edge suction during dynamic stall

Dynamic stall dominates the aerodynamic performance, the robustness, and the wake dynamics of vertical axis wind turbines. To better assess the dynamic stall onset and its associated unsteady effects, this paper analyzes experimentally the evolution of the leading edge suction vector on a sinusoidally pitching airfoil based on time-resolved surface pressure measurements and particle image velocimetry. During the dynamic stall stage, we linked the shear layer evolution with the evolution of the leading edge suction. The dynamic stall development prior to dynamic stall onset consists of two stages: a primary instability stage and a vortex formation stage. The transition between the stages is marked by a maximum in the leading edge suction. During the primary instability stage, the leading edge suction increases linearly while the shear layer height with respect to the airfoil’s surface also increases linearly. During the vortex formations stage, the leading edge suction decreases linearly while the shear layer rolls up and creates a dynamic stall vortex. The maximum leading edge suction increases nearly linearly with the normalized effective unsteadiness. The leading edge suction at dynamic stall onset appears to be independent of unsteadiness of the pitching motion.

Experimental Investigation of the Near Wall Flow Downstream of a Passenger Car Wheel Arch

The flow around and downstream of the front wheels of passenger cars is highly complex and characterized by flow structure interactions between the external flow, fluid exiting through the wheelhouse, flow from the engine bay and the underbody. In the present paper the near wall flow downstream of the front wheel house is analyzed, combining two traditional methods. A tuft visualization method is used to obtain the limiting streamline pattern and information about the near wall flow direction. Additionally, time resolved surface pressure measurements are used to study the pressure distribution and the standard deviation. The propagation of the occurring flow structures is investigated by cross correlations of the pressure signal and a spectral analysis provides the characteristic frequencies of the investigated flow. It is found that two main flow phenomena can be observed: one originates from flow exiting the upper wheelhouse and a second one resulting from a separation on the lower wheel house edge. The frequency spectrum reveals a dominant Strouhal number of 0.2. As the observed flow structures are attributed to the wheel-wheelhouse interaction, a closed wheelhouse configuration is also investigated and the results confirm that the fluctuations and observed flow structures are created by the flow interaction between the wheel, wheelhouse and the rotation of the wheel.

Characterization of Vortex Dynamics in a Laminar Separation Bubble

The development of coherent structures within the laminar separation bubble that forms on a NACA 0018 airfoil at an angle of attack of 8 deg and a chord-based Reynolds number of 100,000 is investigated experimentally. A combination of high-speed flow visualizations and time-resolved surface pressure measurements is used to enable quantitative analysis of vortex dynamics. The amplification of disturbances in the separated shear layer leads to the formation of rollup vortices that are shed upstream of the mean reattachment location. The experimental results show that these structures produce distinct, periodic surface pressure fluctuations that can be used to detect, track, and characterize the rollup vortices. A vortex tracking technique is developed and validated in the present investigation. The developed methodology is used to investigate temporal and spatial variation in vortex shedding parameters and to study attendant vortex interactions, which involve merging of two or more consecutive vortices. The results provide new insight into vortex dynamics in laminar separation bubbles, and the developed technique can serve as an efficient tool for future studies and active flow control implementation.

Large Low-Frequency Oscillations Initiated by Flow Control on a Poststall Airfoil

A large-amplitude low-frequency oscillation has been reported in the literature for some airfoils in a small range of angles of attack before stall. In the current study, the same low-frequency oscillations are shown to be triggered by two methods of active flow control at poststall angles. Active control is applied in the form of external acoustic excitation or a row of discrete jets that are operated in a pulsed or steady mode. Conditionally averaged particle image velocimetry and time-resolved surface pressure measurements are used to evaluate the spatial and temporal characteristics of the oscillation. By systematically increasing forcing amplitude, each flow control technique is shown to first excite low-frequency oscillation up to a maximum lift increase, after which subsequent increases in forcing amplitude attenuate and ultimately eliminate low-frequency oscillation altogether. At maximum oscillation amplitude, the behavior is highly periodic in the case of acoustic forcing and intermittent in the case of pulsed or steady jets. The dynamics associated with the oscillation are shown to include the shedding of a large vortex structure, with noted similarity to the dynamic stall vortex seen on pitching or plunging airfoils.

Time-Resolved Heat Transfer and Surface Pressure Measurements for a Fully Cooled Transonic Turbine Stage

The flow field in axial gas turbines is driven by strong unsteady interactions between stationary and moving components. While time-averaged measurements can highlight many important flow features, developing a deeper understanding of the complicated flows present in high-speed turbomachinery requires time-accurate measurements that capture this unsteady behavior. Toward this end, time-accurate measurements are presented for a fully cooled transonic high-pressure turbine stage operating at design-corrected conditions. The turbine is run in a short-duration blowdown facility with uniform, radial, and hot streak vane-inlet temperature profiles as well as various amounts of cooling flow. High-frequency response surface pressure and heat-flux instrumentation installed in the rotating blade row, stator vane row, and stationary outer shroud provide detailed measurements of the flow behavior for this stage. Previous papers have reported the time-averaged results from this experiment, but this paper focuses on the strong unsteady phenomena that are observed. Heat-flux measurements from double-sided heat-flux gauges (HFGs) cover three spanwise locations on the blade pressure and suction surfaces. In addition, there are two instrumented blades with the cooling holes blocked to isolate the effect of just blade cooling. The stage can be run with the vane and blade cooling flow either on or off. High-frequency pressure measurements provide a picture of the unsteady aerodynamics on the vane and blade airfoil surfaces, as well as inside the serpentine coolant supply passages of the blade. A time-accurate computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation is also run to predict the blade surface pressure and heat-flux, and comparisons between prediction and measurement are given. It is found that unsteady variations in heat-flux and pressure are stronger at low to midspan and weaker at high span, likely due to the impact of secondary flows such as the tip leakage flow. Away from the tip, it is seen that the unsteady fluctuations in pressure and heat-flux are mostly in phase with each other on the suction side, but there is some deviation on the pressure side. The flow field is ultimately shown to be highly three-dimensional, as the movement of high heat transfer regions can be traced in both the chord and spanwise directions. These measurements provide a unique picture of the unsteady flow physics of a rotating turbine, and efforts to better understand and model these time-varying flows have the potential to change the way we think about even the time-averaged flow characteristics.

Transient fluid-combustion phenomena in a model scramjet

AbstractAn experimental and numerical investigation of the unsteady phenomena induced in a hydrogen-fuelled scramjet combustor under high-equivalence-ratio conditions is carried out, focusing on the processes leading up to unstart. The configuration for the study is the fuelled flow path of the HyShot II flight experiment. Experiments are performed in the HEG reflected-shock wind tunnel, and results are compared with those obtained from unsteady numerical simulations. High-speed schlieren and OH∗ chemiluminescence visualization, together with time-resolved surface pressure measurements, allow links to be drawn between the experimentally observed flow and combustion features. The transient flow structures signalling the onset of unstart are observed to take the form of an upstream-propagating shock train. Both the speed of propagation and the downstream location at which the shock train originates depend strongly on the equivalence ratio. The physical nature of the incipient shock system, however, appears to be similar for different equivalence ratios. Both experiments and computations indicate that the primary mechanism responsible for the transient behaviour is thermal choking, though localized boundary-layer separation is observed to accompany the shock system as it moves upstream. In the numerical simulations, the global choking behaviour is dictated by the limited region of maximum heat release around the shear layer between the injected hydrogen and the incoming air flow. This leads to the idea of ‘local’ thermal choking and results in a lower choking limit than is predicted by a simple integral analysis. Such localized choking makes it possible for new quasi-steady flow topologies to arise, and these are observed in both experiments and simulation. Finally, a quasi-unsteady one-dimensional analytical model is proposed to explain elements of the shock-propagation behaviour.

Novel Time-Resolved Pressure Measurements on an Airfoil at a Low Reynolds Number

2This work focuses on time-resolved surface pressure measurements on an airfoil operating in low Reynolds number flows. The experiments were performed on a NACA 0018 airfoil at a chord Reynolds number of 100,000. The results are presented for two angles of attack, eight and twelve degrees, representative of two flow regimes common to airfoil operation at low Reynolds numbers, separation bubble formation and separation without subsequent reattachment. An array of twenty-five microphones was embedded into the airfoil model to facilitate multi-point, time-resolved surface pressure measurements. A comparative analysis of mean pressure, velocity, and time-resolved pressure measurements is presented to determine what flow characteristics can be estimated using embedded pressure sensors. The results show that surface pressure fluctuations increase markedly past the separation location, reflecting the increase in the magnitude of velocity fluctuations in the separated shear layer undergoing laminar-to-turbulent transition. In the separation bubble, surface pressure fluctuations peak just upstream of reattachment, suggesting that time- resolved surface pressure measurements can be used to identify the presence and estimate the length of the separation region. The analysis of simultaneous velocity and pressure measurements shows that the characteristics of flow disturbances growing in the separated shear layer can be estimated from microphone measurements. In particular, the dominant frequency, convective speed, and growth rate of disturbances can be estimated without performing the extensive tests typically required when conventional velocity measurement techniques are used. However, when separation occurs without reattachment, the relatively large distance between the transitioning separated shear layer and the airfoil surface results in lower magnitude surface pressure fluctuations, which substantially increases the uncertainty of estimating flow characteristics based on microphone measurements for this flow regime.

Parametric study of separation and transition characteristics over an airfoil at low Reynolds numbers

Time-resolved surface pressure measurements are used to experimentally investigate characteristics of separation and transition over a NACA 0018 airfoil for the relatively wide range of chord Reynolds numbers from 50,000 to 250,000 and angles of attack from 0° to 21°. The results provide a comprehensive data set of characteristic parameters for separated shear layer development and reveal important dependencies of these quantities on flow conditions. Mean surface pressure measurements are used to explore the variation in separation bubble position, edge velocity in the separated shear layer, and lift coefficients with angle of attack and Reynolds number. Consistent with previous studies, the separation bubble is found to move upstream and decrease in length as the Reynolds number and angle of attack increase. Above a certain angle of attack, the proximity of the separation bubble to the location of the suction peak results in a reduced lift slope compared to that observed at lower angles. Simultaneous measurements of the time-varying component of surface pressure at various spatial locations on the model are used to estimate the frequency of shear layer instability, maximum root-mean-square (RMS) surface pressure, spatial amplification rates of RMS surface pressure, and convection speeds of the pressure fluctuations in the separation bubble. A power-law correlation between the shear layer instability frequency and Reynolds number is shown to provide an order of magnitude estimate of the central frequency of disturbance amplification for various airfoil geometries at low Reynolds numbers. Maximum RMS surface pressures are found to agree with values measured in separation bubbles over geometries other than airfoils, when normalized by the dynamic pressure based on edge velocity. Spatial amplification rates in the separation bubble increase with both Reynolds number and angle of attack, causing the accompanying decrease in separation bubble length. Values of the convection speed of pressure fluctuations in the separated shear layer are measured to be between 35 and 50% of the edge velocity, consistent with predictions of linear stability theory for separated shear layers.

Multi-time-delay LSE-POD complementary approach applied to unsteady high-Reynolds-number near wake flow

This investigation compared the application and accuracy of single- and multi-time-delay linear stochastic estimation-proper orthogonal decomposition (LSE-POD) methods in the temporal domain. These methods were considered for low-dimensional estimations of the dynamics of the energy-containing structures in a high Reynolds number flow. The near wake dynamics of a bluff body were used to demonstrate the robustness and accuracy of the investigated LSE-POD methods. Statistically independent two-dimensional particle image velocimetry (PIV) measurements were used to determine spatial POD modes, and time-resolved surface pressure measurements were used to determine LSE coefficients required for estimating the time-varying POD coefficients. A low-order, time-resolved reconstruction of the wake dynamics was accomplished using these estimated time-varying POD coefficients. The paper also provides details concerning the accuracy of the estimation using multi-time-delay LSE-POD. The results demonstrate that the multi-time LSE-POD technique is successful in capturing and reconstructing the important near wake dynamics. It is also shown that optimizing the time delays used for the estimations increases the accuracy of the reconstruction. As a result of its capabilities, the multi-time-delay implementation of the LSE-POD approach offers an alternate method for low-dimensional modeling that is attractive for real-time flow estimation.

Unsteady Separated Flow Characterization on Airfoils Using Time-Resolved Surface Pressure Measurements

Laminar boundary-layer separation and separated shear layer development on a NACA 0025 airfoil at low Reynolds numbers were studied experimentally. Flow visualization, hot-wire velocity measurements, and time-resolved surface pressure measurements were employed in this investigation. The results for two distinct flow regimes, namely, flow separation without subsequent shear layer reattachment and separation bubble formation, are discussed in detail. For both flow regimes, the transition occurs due to the amplification of natural flow disturbances in the separated shear layer. Initially, disturbances within a band of frequencies centered at some fundamental frequency are amplified. Further downstream, nonlinear interactions set in, leading to a breakdown to turbulence. Based on the spectral and correlation analysis of velocity and surface pressure fluctuations, it is demonstrated that the amplification of disturbances and the attendant fluctuations in the flow velocity give rise to distinct surface pressure fluctuations at the fundamental frequency. Thus, time-resolved surface pressure measurements can be employed to estimate important unsteady characteristics of the separated flow region on an airfoil operating in low Reynolds flows.

A Study of the Behaviour of a Single-Bladed Waste-Water Pump

A single-vaned centrifugal pump, typical of the kind employed in waste-water applications (e.g. sewage treatment), has been investigated numerically. The primary objective was to identify a modelling approach that was accurate, but at an acceptable computational cost. A test program has been executed to provide data to validate the numerical models. The global performance of the pump was assessed in terms of the pressure head, the mass flowrate, the power consumption, and the pump efficiency. In addition, time-resolved surface-pressure measurements were made at the volute wall. Five combinations of three modelling approximations (two or 3D; k-ε or Reynolds stress model turbulence model; unsteady or quasi-steady) were investigated and compared with the experimental results. It was found that the choice of turbulence model did not have a significant effect on the predictions. In all cases, the head-discharge curve was well predicted. However, it was found that only the quasi-steady models could capture the trend of the power consumption curve, and hence that of the efficiency. Discrepancies in the magnitude of the power consumption can be accounted for by the lack of losses such as leakage in the numerical models. Qualitative analysis of the numerical results identifies the trailing edge of the impeller as the primary source of power loss, with the flow in the region of the cut water also contributing significantly to the poor overall efficiency of the design.

High frame-rate imaging of surface pressure distribution using a porous pressure-sensitive paint

The aim of the present work is to demonstrate the feasibility of a porous pressure-sensitive paint (PSP) for time-resolved surface pressure measurements in unsteady high-speed flows. The porous PSP was composed of bathophenanthroline ruthenium(II) complex, Ru(Ph2-phen) and a silica-gel thin-layer chromatography aluminium plate. The dynamic response of the porous PSP was characterized by a point-wise luminescence intensity measurement conducted in a shock tube facility. The result showed that the time constant of the porous PSP was 13.6 µs. The porous PSP was then applied to the surface pressure distribution imaging of an unsteady flow induced in a two-dimensional Laval nozzle by using a fast-framing complementary metal oxide semiconductor camera. It was clearly shown that the porous PSP well captured the shock-wave motion of the order of kilohertz during the starting process of the supersonic nozzle in a qualitative manner.

Airfoil Flow Visualization and Pressure Measurements in High-Reynolds-Number Transonic Flow

Today most wind tunnels operated for aerodynamic testing are not able to reproduce flight Reynolds numbers. To overcome this problem, a shock tube flow is used to generate a high-Reynolds-number transonic flow. With this technique, Reynolds numbers up to 40 × 10 6 based on model chord length are attainable in the Mach number range between 0.6 and 0.9. Time-resolved surface pressure measurements, as well as flow visualizations, are performed for the airfoil BAC3-11/RES/30/21. Two models of different chord lengths, 80 and 100 mm, have been used. The maximum Reynolds number achieved to date is 38 x 10 6 for a freestream Mach number of 0.8. The results show that by calibrating the test-section flow carefully, this wind-tunnel technique can generate high-Reynolds-number flows, allowing aerodynamic testing at low cost. The technique avoids the complex cryogenic wind tunnel and model technique, at the expense of relatively short running times and relatively small test-section cross size. The testing time is on the order of 10-15 ms, which is sufficiently long for flow establishment and development of a useful measuring phase with stationary or at least quasi-stationary flow