Experimental study of error sources in skin-friction balance measurements

An experimental study has been performed to determine potential error sources in skin-friction balance measurements. A floating-element balance, large enough to contain the instrumentation needed to systematically investigate these error sources has been constructed and tested in the thick turbulent boundary layer on the sidewall of a large supersonic wind tunnel. Test variables include element-to-case misalignment, gap size, and Reynolds number. The effects of these variables on the friction, lip, and normal forces have been analyzed. It was found that larger gap sizes were preferable to smaller ones; that small element recession below the surrounding test surface produced errors comparable to the same amount of protrusion above the test surface; and that normal forces on the element were, in some cases, large compared to the friction force.