Evaluation of large-scale wing vortex wakes from multi–frame PIV measurements in free–flight laboratory

Abstract

PIV measurements in an aircraft wake have been performed in the free–flight laboratory of ONERA in Lille, France, jointly by ONERA and DLR in the frame-work of the EU–FP5 project AWIATOR [1]. Using the B20 catapult bench [2], an aircraft model with a wing span of more than 2 m was catapulted into free flight at exactly predefined flight conditions. The experimental investigation aimed at characterizing the development of wake vortex systems for various high lift configu-rations from the near-field well into the far-field in order to provide a data base to validate CFD calculations.