AN AIRBORNE FLOW VISUALIZATION SYSTEM

THIS IS A PROPOSAL TO DEVELOP AN AIRBORNE FLOW VISUALIZATION SYSTEM WHICH CAN BE INTEGRATED WITH EXISTING AIRCRAFT PODS AND RECORD FLOW FIELD DATA WHICH LOCATE, VISUALIZE, AND CHARACTERIZE LOCAL FLOW PHENOMENA SUCH AS VORTICES, SHOCK WAVES, AND LAMINAR TO TURBULENT FLOW TRANSITION. THE AERODYNAMIC INTERACTION BETWEEN AIRCRAFT STORES AND THE AIRCRAFT ITSELF CONSTITUTES AN EXTREMELY COMPLEX AND ESSENTIALLY UNPREDICTABLE PROBLEM. INSTRUMENTING AN AIRCRAFT TO PROVIDE EXPERIMENTAL DATA ON AIRCRAFT/STORE INTERACTION WILL AUGMENT THE SOLUTION OF THIS PROBLEM. THE PROPOSED DESIGN INCORPORATES A RAPIDLY SCANNED LASER BEAM WHICH IS PROJECTED FROM THE POD AND WHICH ILLUMINATES THE FLOW REGION AROUND AN ADJACENT STORE. DATA CAN BE EXTRACTED FROM EITHER THE LIGHT SCATTERED BY AEROSOLS IN THE FLOW OR LIGHT SCATTERED FROM THE STORE OR AIRCRAFT SURFACE. THE FORMER METHOD IS CALLES LASER SHEET FLOW VISUALIZATION. THE LATTER, DEPENDING UPON THE PROCESSING METHOD CHOSEN CAN BE CATEGORIZED AS EITHER, INDIRECT SHADOWGRAPH, MOIRE DEFLECTOMETRY, SHEAROGRAPHY, OR SPECKLE INTERFEROMETRY.