Update on recent and planned improvements in transonic testing at AEDC

A broad view of recent and planned improvements for the Arnold Engineering Development Center (AEDC) Propulsion Wind Tunnel Facility (PWT) is presented. The improvements are both hardware/performance upgrades and test process and data handling upgrades. These improvements will be made to Tunnels 4T and 16T which are 30 and 42 years old, respectively. Near-term improvements are: addition of Pressure Sensitive Paint (PSP) capability and Optotrak® model attitude/ deformation measurement system; upgrade to a new Pressure Scanning System (PSS) and on-cart data acquisition; implementation of virtual presence testing capability; replacement of two wound-rotor main drive motors with two higher-power synchronous motors with solid-state starting; acquisition of a new facility atmospheric dryer; and integration of plant and model controls and data acquisition. Planned or potential future improvements are: test cart modernization to allow 4 hr installation into the tunnel and automated test cart insertion; acquisition of an additional test cart; modern data management and handling; near real-time integration of modeling and simulation into the testing process; new force balance inventory; standardized model/cart interfaces; and modeling of test/business processes to enable better decisions. The majority of these improvements will be completed over the next five to seven years with a predicted reduction of at least 50-percent in test cycle time and cost.