WALL-PRESSURE SIGNATURE METHOD

The wall pressure signature method for correcting low speed wind tunnel data to free air
conditions uses experimentally measured tunnel wall pressure to approximately
reconstruct the flow field about the body with potential sources and sinks. With the use of
these sources and sinks, the measured drag and tunnel dynamic pressure are corrected for
blockage effects.
During the wind tunnel test the pressure distribution along the tunnel walls are measured.
These pressure distribution is converted to incremental velocity about the free stream
velocity U with the help of definition of dynamic pressure.
u
1 C P 1
U

Where C P is the net pressure coefficient after the wall pressure coefficient for empty
tunnel have been subtracted off.
The resulting velocity distribution is result of superposition of the velocities by the two
flow fields,
1. Symmetric
2. Anti symmetric
Symmetric signature
In symmetric signature the model of the body and its separation bubble is represented
by pairs of source and sink of strength ( QS ) , which are separated by a distance of C s .
Anti symmetric signature
In anti symmetric signature, the viscous wake of the body is represented by a single
point source of strength Qw and is located at the peak of the symmetric velocity
distribution.

1. ANTI-SYMMETRIC SIGNATURE MODELLING (WAKE)

Due to a point source of strength (Q) located at ( xo , yo ) , the x-component of the induced
velocity by that source at an arbitrary location (x,y) is given by
u

Q
4

x xo

2
2
( x xo ) ( y yo )

To ensure mass conservation, single source at wake must be accompanied with a single
sink of equal strength (Qw ) at some downstream location ( x5 ) . Initially the wake

source is placed at ( x2 ) mid length of the model but latter it may be shifted to some
other position, during the process of iteration in such a manner that it is closer enough or
say coincides with the position x p where peak velocity distribution due to symmetric
signature exist.

The effects of the walls on the flow field can be simulated by the superposition of an
infinite row of image systems. Velocity increment on one of the walls ( y B / 2) ,
resulting from the wake source/sink pair is,

1
u

2
U w
4

Qw
x x2
x x5

2
2
2
2
U B n 0 ( x x 2 ) (n 0.5) ( x x 5 ) (n 0.5)

Here, in the above equation the factor 2 comes from the fact the summation terms account
for the image systems on one side of the wall only (the influence of the images is
symmetric about the wall).
Source (QW ) is located at ( x2 ,0) and sink is located at ( x5 ,0) .
On solving the summation terms alone and assuming the wake source to be at x 2 0
following results are obtained,

x
5

10
10
10
100
100
1000
1000

Number
images
1,000
10,000
100,000
10,000
100,000
10,000
100,000

of

the Asymptotes
3.132
3.140
3.140
3.132
3.137
3.133
3.128

Slope@ ( x 2 )
4.801
4.801
4.800
4.801
4.798
4.801
4.804

The above table shows the downstream asymptote and slope at x x 2 for various sink
locations x 5 and the number of images used. From the above results it can be conclude
that the asymptote can be taken as and the slope at ( x 2 ) as 4.800.
Thus the asymptotic velocity is given as ;
u
1 QW

U
2

U
B
x

1 QW

2 U B

The slope at the source location is given as ;

d u
1 QW
2.4 QW

4.800

dx U x 2 2 U B
U B

The actual velocity distribution can be approximated by a hyperbolic tangent function,

A1 1 tanh A2 ( x x2
U

Where A1 and A2 are constants and are determined the numerical analysis of the given
equation.

u
x x2
x x5
1 Q

2 w

2
2
2
2
4 U B n 0 ( x x 2 ) (n 0.5) ( x x 5 ) (n 0.5)
U w

Noting that tanh x 1 as x , thus the asymptote is given as ;

u

2 A1
U
x

And the slope at x x 2 is given as;

d u

A1 A2 1 tanh A2 ( x x 2
dx U x
2

x x2

A1 A2

Thus from above all equations, A1 and A2 is given as ;

1 Q
A1 W
4 UB

A2 3.056

Thus downstream asymptote is 2 A1 and the slope at x x2

seen in the below given figure.

is A1 A2 . It can also be

The downstream asymptote is taken to be the peak velocity at x

Thus the velocity asymptote is given as

u
1 Q

W 1 tanh 3.056 x x 2
U W 4 U B

x5
2

In addition, since A1 is half the asymptotic downstream velocity, the wake source
strength is then given by;
u
QW

2
UB
U x

2. SYMMETRIC SIGNATURE MODELLING (BODY /BUBBLE)

Once the wake signature is determined, it is subtracted from the measured wall velocities
leaving the portion due to body/bubble.
The resulting symmetric signature is curve fitted by a parabola ;
2
u

x x
U S

From the above equation ;

Peak velocity :

u
2

4
U max

Peak position :

xp

x 2

Width at half height :

u U max
2

If the curve fit yields a divergent result then, the symmetric signature is smoothed by
replacing the value at that point by the average of the point and its immediate neighbors
points, but this is done only once . Even if convergence is not obtained then it is obtained
by Hensels method.
Once the parabola is determined, it becomes an inverse problem to find the source/sink
strength and spacing which corresponds to this parabolic distribution.
By using the following given equation, the source /sink spacing c S is found.

u
1 QS
x
x cs

U 4 U B n x (n 0.5) 2 ( x c s ) 2 (n 0.5) 2

Or
uB
1

QS
2

n 0

x (n 0.5) 2
2

x cs

2
2
( x c s ) (n 0.5)

For a given range of c S , maximum source-strength-normalized incremental velocity

uB QS max is obtained by putting x 1 c s in the above equation.
2
The width at the half height is determined by iteration. This is done by evaluating the
above equation by putting different values of x , until at position x x1/ 2 , at which
uB 1 uB

is found. The width at half height is given by;

QS
2 QS max

x 2 x1/ 2 0.5c s

Once the source-sink spacing c S

and the maximum source-strength-normalized
uB 1 uB

incremental velocity
is obtained, the symmetric source-sink strength

QS
2 QS max
is obtained by the following equation ;

u U max
QS

U B uB QS max

The source sink positions are given as ;

1
x3 x p c s
2
1
x4 x p cs
2

Note: it is suggested that a minimum value of c S should not be less than 0.05. And the
number of image systems should be of the order of 10^5 or 10^6.

CENTERLINE INTERFERENCE VELOCITIES

Once the source strength and position are known, the total centerline interference velocity
distribution is calculated by superposing the effects of each sources.
The interference velocity distribution is obtained by putting source strength and their
positions as input for the following equation, this is to be done for all sources.

u
1 Q
x xo

2
2
U C L 2 U B n 1 ( x x o ) n

RECONSTRUCTING THE WALL VELOCITIES

The tunnel wall velocities could be reconstructed, just like in case of anti symmetric wake
signature (where the velocity distribution was approximated by a hyperbolic tangent
function), the symmetric source-sink pair could also be modelled by two hyperbolic
tangent functions. The resulting reconstructed wall velocity signature is then given by ;

u 1 QW
1Q
1 tanh A2 x x 2 W tanh A2 x x 3 tanh A2 x x 4

U 4 U
4 U

CORRECTION FOR DYNAMIC PRESSURE AND DRAG

The maximum interference velocity max is used to correct the dynamic pressure,
u

U C L

max

max

qc qm 1 max

Where q m is the measured tunnel dynamic pressure and qc is the corrected dynamic
pressure.
Drag coefficient correction constitute of effects of tunnel dynamic pressure correction and
horizontal bouyancy.

Bouuyancy drag is calculated by a method called as uQ method , which is basically

derived from momentum balance. Thus the bouyancy drag DB on the model is given
as;

DB u s QS u s QS uW QW

Where u is the induced velocity of each source.

We also know that a downstream wake sink is necessary for continuity , therefore the
drag of all the sources and sink is then zero.

DTOT us QS u sQS uW QW uW QW 0

And thus bouyancy drag can also be given as

DB uW QW

We also know that uW is half the asymptotic velocity of the wake source .

1Q
uW W
4 B
Hence the drag coefficient correction for horizontal bouyancy i sgiven as ;
C D B

1 Q
W
2 UB

B

C

Where C is the model chord.

Total drag coefficient correction by including both horizontal bouyancy and tunnel
dynamic pressure is given as ;

q
C DC C Dm C DB m
qc

Where C Dm is the measured drag coefficient and C Dc is the corrected drag coefficient.