Final Report Summary - NIOPLEX (Non-intrusive Optical Pressure and Loads Extraction for Aerodynamic Analysis)
Executive Summary:
NIOPLEX has contributed to the development of non-intrusive experimental flow diagnostics to improve the aerodynamic analysis capabilities in wind tunnels. The particular objective of the project is to develop an unprecedented comprehensive diagnostic approach, achieved by a simultaneous measurement of the surface pressure distribution on a model and the velocity and pressure field around it.
Currently, Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) is used as the major diagnostic technique to obtain the mean flow field and turbulent fluctuations. The present project has focused in particular on the method of “pressure measurement by PIV” and has pursued how it can be further developed to a stage that makes it ready for application to industrial problems. Different methodologies for this purpose, that have been previously proposed or are currently under development, have been assessed as to their performances. Furthermore, a comparison with Pressure Sensitive Paint (PSP) was undertaken, to investigate if the PIV-based approach may be regarded as complementary to PSP or as a possible or partial replacement.
The project ultimately aims to support the design of improved aeronautical transport systems by better and more flexible flow-pressure diagnostics, suitable for aerodynamic performance analysis. These capabilities can impact the design process at an early stage with the use of additional experimental data and diagnostic capabilities during the development cycle.
NIOPLEX is coordinated by TU Delft and brings nine leading research teams in this area together in a consortium to achieve these objectives. The measurement procedures have been demonstrated on test cases relevant to industrial research. Specific measurement protocols were formulated and evaluated to ease their use. The results will be made of wide impact by extensive dissemination activities within the academy and among industry. The results of the project are expected to provide a clear scenario on viable technologies for an enhanced pressure analysis capability in aerodynamic flows and in this way assist potential users of the use of the technique in practice.
Project Context and Objectives:
Europe has expressed its ambitions to support an environmentally sustainable and cost efficient air transport, by setting specific targets for the reduction of fuel consumption, emissions and noise production. Simultaneously, cost efficiency is pursued, in both the aspects of aircraft development and operational costs, and with a further relevance to maintain industrially competitive with respect to other existing or emerging markets. In order to achieve these goals a significant technological innovation effort is needed, which requires the support from dedicated upstream research that should provide the necessary instruments to develop and assess these innovative designs, enabling a short development time and a high level of accuracy to be reached. Many of these issues may need to be optimized to an unprecedented level of accuracy and reliability, whereas at the same time the new and unconventional configurations proposed for these innovations will require to use the existing analysis instruments (both experimental and computational) beyond their common envelope of application. This explains why increasing demands will be set on the capabilities of experimental diagnostic techniques, either for the direct assessment of aerodynamic configurations, or by providing accurate validation data for numerical simulation techniques.
The past decades have demonstrated that the introduction of new diagnostic techniques in wind tunnels, like Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) and Pressure Sensitive Paint (PSP), has significantly enriched the range of diagnostics with major tools for the understanding of critical aerodynamic phenomena. Subsequently the CFD tools to improve aerodynamic performance could be extended in their simulation envelope and lead to optimized aircraft configurations or subsystems.
In this context NIOPLEX aims to contribute to the development of innovative non-intrusive experimental flow diagnostics in order to improve the aerodynamic analysis capabilities in research and industrial wind tunnels. The particular focus of the project is to contribute to the development of an unprecedented comprehensive diagnostic approach, achieved by a simultaneous measurement of the surface pressure distribution on a model and the velocity and pressure field around it.
Currently, PIV is used as the major diagnostic technique to obtain the mean flow field and turbulent fluctuations. The surface pressure can be measured non-intrusively with PSP, but there is essentially no means to conveniently access the pressure inside the flow. The present project targets in particular on the method of “pressure measurement by PIV” and pursues how it can be developed to a stage that makes it ready for application to industrial problems. Comparison with PSP will determine if the PIV-based approach may be regarded as complementary to PSP or as a possible or partial replacement.
One of the enabling achievements of NIOPLEX is that of providing an international collaboration platform for several research groups which act on the forefront of these developments, together with a commercial developer of PIV systems and software (LaVision), which will make these new innovations more easily available for new users in research and industrial environments.
Specific objectives and focal points addressed in the NIOPLEX project are:
• the development and assessment of new approaches to pressure extraction from velocity data, with emphasis on methods that can provide instantaneous pressure
• comparative assessment of different approaches, based on synthetic experimental data, such that reference pressure is available for validation
• validation of methods under experimental conditions
• demonstration in several challenging fluid-dynamic applications, with practical relevance, such as turbulent flow, unsteady wing flow with large-scale separation and high-speed flows
• investigation of the joint/combined use of PIV and PSP
The consortium brings together a number of teams with proven expertise in the relevant areas. The project is coordinated by TU Delft, and the project consortium consists of a further 7 partners from EU countries (CNRS, SOTON, UNIBW, ONERA, LAVIS and TUB), one from Turkey (ITU) and one from Canada (UCLG). Additionally, a scientific and industrial Advisory Board (with members from DNW, DLR, CIRA and Airbus DS) has been established in active support of the consortium.
Project Results:
In view of the extensive graphical content this section can be found in the attached report (pdf file).
Potential Impact:
See the attached report (pdf file)
List of Websites:
The address of the project public website is: http://nioplex.eu/.
For information on the NIOPLEX project, please contact:
Scientific Coordinator
Dr. Bas van Oudheusden
Associate Professor in Aerodynamics
TU Delft / Faculty of Aerospace Engineering
Kluyverweg 1
2629 HS Delft
T: +31 (0)15 27 85349
E: B.W.vanOudheusden@tudelft.nl
Project Manager
Dr. Ni Yan
Project Manager European Collaboration
TU Delft / Valorisation Centre (VC)
Mekelweg 4
2628 CD Delft
T: +31 (0)15 27 83059
E: n.yan@tudelft.nl
NIOPLEX has contributed to the development of non-intrusive experimental flow diagnostics to improve the aerodynamic analysis capabilities in wind tunnels. The particular objective of the project is to develop an unprecedented comprehensive diagnostic approach, achieved by a simultaneous measurement of the surface pressure distribution on a model and the velocity and pressure field around it.
Currently, Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) is used as the major diagnostic technique to obtain the mean flow field and turbulent fluctuations. The present project has focused in particular on the method of “pressure measurement by PIV” and has pursued how it can be further developed to a stage that makes it ready for application to industrial problems. Different methodologies for this purpose, that have been previously proposed or are currently under development, have been assessed as to their performances. Furthermore, a comparison with Pressure Sensitive Paint (PSP) was undertaken, to investigate if the PIV-based approach may be regarded as complementary to PSP or as a possible or partial replacement.
The project ultimately aims to support the design of improved aeronautical transport systems by better and more flexible flow-pressure diagnostics, suitable for aerodynamic performance analysis. These capabilities can impact the design process at an early stage with the use of additional experimental data and diagnostic capabilities during the development cycle.
NIOPLEX is coordinated by TU Delft and brings nine leading research teams in this area together in a consortium to achieve these objectives. The measurement procedures have been demonstrated on test cases relevant to industrial research. Specific measurement protocols were formulated and evaluated to ease their use. The results will be made of wide impact by extensive dissemination activities within the academy and among industry. The results of the project are expected to provide a clear scenario on viable technologies for an enhanced pressure analysis capability in aerodynamic flows and in this way assist potential users of the use of the technique in practice.
Project Context and Objectives:
Europe has expressed its ambitions to support an environmentally sustainable and cost efficient air transport, by setting specific targets for the reduction of fuel consumption, emissions and noise production. Simultaneously, cost efficiency is pursued, in both the aspects of aircraft development and operational costs, and with a further relevance to maintain industrially competitive with respect to other existing or emerging markets. In order to achieve these goals a significant technological innovation effort is needed, which requires the support from dedicated upstream research that should provide the necessary instruments to develop and assess these innovative designs, enabling a short development time and a high level of accuracy to be reached. Many of these issues may need to be optimized to an unprecedented level of accuracy and reliability, whereas at the same time the new and unconventional configurations proposed for these innovations will require to use the existing analysis instruments (both experimental and computational) beyond their common envelope of application. This explains why increasing demands will be set on the capabilities of experimental diagnostic techniques, either for the direct assessment of aerodynamic configurations, or by providing accurate validation data for numerical simulation techniques.
The past decades have demonstrated that the introduction of new diagnostic techniques in wind tunnels, like Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) and Pressure Sensitive Paint (PSP), has significantly enriched the range of diagnostics with major tools for the understanding of critical aerodynamic phenomena. Subsequently the CFD tools to improve aerodynamic performance could be extended in their simulation envelope and lead to optimized aircraft configurations or subsystems.
In this context NIOPLEX aims to contribute to the development of innovative non-intrusive experimental flow diagnostics in order to improve the aerodynamic analysis capabilities in research and industrial wind tunnels. The particular focus of the project is to contribute to the development of an unprecedented comprehensive diagnostic approach, achieved by a simultaneous measurement of the surface pressure distribution on a model and the velocity and pressure field around it.
Currently, PIV is used as the major diagnostic technique to obtain the mean flow field and turbulent fluctuations. The surface pressure can be measured non-intrusively with PSP, but there is essentially no means to conveniently access the pressure inside the flow. The present project targets in particular on the method of “pressure measurement by PIV” and pursues how it can be developed to a stage that makes it ready for application to industrial problems. Comparison with PSP will determine if the PIV-based approach may be regarded as complementary to PSP or as a possible or partial replacement.
One of the enabling achievements of NIOPLEX is that of providing an international collaboration platform for several research groups which act on the forefront of these developments, together with a commercial developer of PIV systems and software (LaVision), which will make these new innovations more easily available for new users in research and industrial environments.
Specific objectives and focal points addressed in the NIOPLEX project are:
• the development and assessment of new approaches to pressure extraction from velocity data, with emphasis on methods that can provide instantaneous pressure
• comparative assessment of different approaches, based on synthetic experimental data, such that reference pressure is available for validation
• validation of methods under experimental conditions
• demonstration in several challenging fluid-dynamic applications, with practical relevance, such as turbulent flow, unsteady wing flow with large-scale separation and high-speed flows
• investigation of the joint/combined use of PIV and PSP
The consortium brings together a number of teams with proven expertise in the relevant areas. The project is coordinated by TU Delft, and the project consortium consists of a further 7 partners from EU countries (CNRS, SOTON, UNIBW, ONERA, LAVIS and TUB), one from Turkey (ITU) and one from Canada (UCLG). Additionally, a scientific and industrial Advisory Board (with members from DNW, DLR, CIRA and Airbus DS) has been established in active support of the consortium.
Project Results:
In view of the extensive graphical content this section can be found in the attached report (pdf file).
Potential Impact:
See the attached report (pdf file)
List of Websites:
The address of the project public website is: http://nioplex.eu/.
For information on the NIOPLEX project, please contact:
Scientific Coordinator
Dr. Bas van Oudheusden
Associate Professor in Aerodynamics
TU Delft / Faculty of Aerospace Engineering
Kluyverweg 1
2629 HS Delft
T: +31 (0)15 27 85349
E: B.W.vanOudheusden@tudelft.nl
Project Manager
Dr. Ni Yan
Project Manager European Collaboration
TU Delft / Valorisation Centre (VC)
Mekelweg 4
2628 CD Delft
T: +31 (0)15 27 83059
E: n.yan@tudelft.nl
