Design and construction of aeroelastic wind tunnel models

The design and building of accurately scaled aeroelastic wind-tunnel models is difficult, time consuming and very costly. With the increasing usefulness of computational methods for predicting aeroelastic phenomena, few complex models have been built in recent years. New fighter aircraft projects are also becoming more and more scarce, and transport aircraft have essentially the same configuration since half a decade. This also significantly reduces the need for aeroelastic wind-tunnel models. However, there still is an interest in the results from aeroelastic testing. In some cases new and radical configurations may warrant wind-tunnel testing and in other cases complex phenomena arising in flight testing may need carefully performed experiments to resolve problems. However, there is definitely a trend towards building models and performing testing in the support of the development of computational methods. The developments in computer technology do not only improve the computational methods for aeroelasticity. Modern Computer Aided Design and Manufacturing techniques can significantly improve the quality and efficiency of the design and build process for aeroelastic models. There have also been some recent improvements in measurement techniques which have proven very useful for testing of aeroelastic wind-tunnel models. The paper will present some new design and build techniques developed for the manufacturing of a large scale wind-tunnel model of a canard delta wing fighter aircraft configuration. In the build process fiber-reinforced composites will be used, hence, challenges and possible solutions concerning the ability to produce a model with well defined material properties and fiber angles will be discussed. Further challenges arise when both measurement equipment and adjustable control surfaces should be attached inside the model using techniques that are possible to describe with computational methods. In addition, equipment, such as pressure taps, and control surface mechanics need to fit and function in a flexible structure. As a result, the above requirements will lead to necessary compromises in the design, hence, the paper will present the choices taken during the build process and for which reasons. The use of an optical positioning measurement system will also be discussed for both the validation of model properties and non-contact measurement of model deformations during wind-tunnel testing.