Recent applications of Temperature-Sensitive Paint in low speed facilities

Abstract

A brief overview of two measurements investigating the laminar to turbulent transition with the Temperature-Sensitive Paint (TSP) technique in two low-speed facilities is given. The first measurement was a flat plate experiment investigating the capabilities of Temperature-Sensitive Paint combined with carbon nanotubes for resistive heating. In this test the heating is used in the temperature step mode. The obtained results show that for low-speed transition insulation is of great influence on the visibility of structures and cannot be fully compensated by increased heating power, with the heating kept at reasonable amount. The second measurement was on a generic natural laminar flow configuration with hot air flowing through the model to create a constant temperature difference between model surface and flow temperature. Both measurements were successful and the characteristic flow features in both cases could be visualized by the TSP method.