WALL-INTERFERENCE CORRECTION FOR THE SURFACE-PRESSURE HYSTERESIS OF AN AIRFOIL UNDERGOING PLUNGING MOTION

In the current research, the results of a number of wind-tunnel experiments on a moving airfoil with plunging motion are presented. The experiments have been conducted in two different configurations which are tunnels with conventional and slotted test-section walls to provide resemblance to a far-field condition. The difference in results obtained from two test-section configurations can be considered as the wall effect and regulated as a function of non-dimensional parameters which can be further used for correcting experimental results obtained from conventional wind tunnels. When the derived correction factor is applied to a numerical simulation of a wind tunnel with a conventional test section (for points located in the front portion of the airfoil), the resulting pressure variations closely resembled that of a far-field numerical simulation. This methodology showed promising results for the specific configurations used in this research.