Improving the Performance of an Aerodynamic Profile by Testing in the Subsonic Wind Tunnel

Abstract

The development of new technologies for commercial aviation involves significant risks to technologies, as these programs are often driven by fixed assumptions about the airline's future needs, while being subject to many technical uncertainties. The effect of these uncertainties is exacerbated by the fact that development programs are long and uncertainties continue to evolve depending on the aircraft. Unfortunately, the standard methods used to carry out all the activities related to the design, manufacture and testing of an aircraft are not sufficient to determine the performance of an aircraft. Thus, worldwide the activity of experimental aerodynamics is crucial in the development and modernization of civilian, military and spacecraft aircraft. The need to perform tests on models of complex phenomena in fluid mechanics, have required, since the late nineteenth century, the design and construction of specific experimental installations called wind tunnels. Thus, wind tunnels have been used with great success since the beginning of aviation as a tool to design new concepts in aerodynamics.

These works aim to improve the performance, accuracy and quality of testing, increase the competitiveness of similar installations on the world market, ensure the national capacity for research - development of new products of the aeronautical and defense industry.