Interference-free wind-tunnel flows by adaptive-wall technology

The adaptive-wall or self-correcting wind tunnel has been proposed for such regimes as transonic and V/STOL where wall effects are large and cannot be corrected for. The power and generality of the concept are pointed out. In a two-dimensional transonic embodiment in the Calspan One-Foot Tunnel, the scheme has been shown to work at lower transonic Mach numbers. Several practical problems are cited, including instrumentation, the nature of the wall modification, and convergence of the iterative procedure. Moreover, questions of shock-wave neutralization at the wall and probable configuration of three-dimensional embodiments are discussed.