Skin Friction Measurements Using Luminescent Oil Films

Nicholas M Husen, Purdue University

Abstract

As aircraft are designed to a greater extent on computers, the need for accurate and fast CFD algorithms has never been greater. The development of CFD algorithms requires experimental data against which CFD output can be validated and from which insight about flow physics can be acquired. Skin friction, in particular, is an important quantity to predict with CFD, and experimental skin friction data sets aid not only with the validation of the CFD predictions, but also in tuning the CFD models to predict specific flow fields. However, a practical experimental technique for collecting spatially and temporally resolved skin friction data on complex models does not yet exist. This dissertation develops and demonstrates a new luminescent oil film skin friction meter which can produce spatially-resolved quantitative steady and unsteady skin friction data on models with complex curvature. The skin friction acting on the surface of a thin film of oil can be approximated by the expression τw =μ ouh/h, where μ o is the dynamic viscosity of the oil, uh is the velocity of the surface of the oil film, and h is the thickness of the oil film. The new skin friction meter determines skin friction by measuring h and uh. The oil film thickness h is determined by ratioing the intensity of the fluorescent emissions from the oil film with the intensity of the incident light which is scattered from the surface of the model. When properly calibrated, that ratio provides an absolute oil film thickness value. This oil film thickness meter is therefore referred as the Ratioed-Image Film-Thickness (RIFT) Meter. The oil film velocity uh is determined by monitoring the evolution of tagged molecules within the oil film: Photochromic molecules are dissolved into the fluorescent oil and a pattern is written into the oil film using an ultraviolet laser. The evolution of the pattern is recorded, and standard cross-correlation techniques are applied to the resulting sequence of images. This newly developed skin friction meter is therefore called the Luminescent Oil Film Flow-Tagging skin friction meter, or the LOFFT skin friction meter. The LOFFT skin friction meter is demonstrated by collecting time-averaged skin friction measurements on NASA's FAITH model and by collecting unsteady skin friction measurements with a frequency response of 600Hz. Higher frequency response is possible and is dependent on the experimental setup. This dissertation also contributes to the work done on the Global Luminescent Oil Film Skin Friction Meter (GLOFSFM) by noting that the technique could be influenced by ripples at the oil-air interface. An experiment studying the evolution of ripples at the oil-air interface was conducted to determine under what oil film conditions the GLOFSFM can be appropriately applied. The RIFT meter was crucial for this experiment, as it facilitated quantitative distributed oil film thickness measurements during the wind-tunnel run. The resulting data set is rich in content, permitting the computation of mean wavelengths, peak-to-trough ripple heights, wave speeds, and mean thicknesses. In addition to determining under what oil film conditions the GLOFSFM may be applied, this experiment directly determined the oil film conditions under which the velocity of the ripples may be used to proxy the velocity of the oil film surface. The RIFT meter and the ability to determine oil film surface velocity by monitoring ripple velocities admit yet another time-averaged skin friction meter, the Fluorescent-Oil Ripple-Velocity (FORV) skin friction meter. The FORV skin friction meter recovers skin friction as τ w = μovrip/H, where vrip is the velocity of the ripples, and H is the oil film thickness averaged over the thickness fluctuations due to the ripples. The FORV skin friction meter is demonstrated on NASA's FAITH model.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Sullivan, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Engineering|Aerospace engineering

COinS