Application of Pressure Sensitive Paint (PSP) for the determination of the instantaneous pressure field of models in a wind tunnel

A two-dimensional and non-intrusive operating optical pressure measurement system PSP (Pressure Sensitive Paint) is described. In recent years, this novel PSP-technology has attracted considerable attention in the aerospace community. The PSP technique can be used to realize absolute pressure measurements on a surface of a model and in addition to quantitatively evaluate flow phenomena using a scientific grade camera and image processing techniques. The PSP system was tested in the Transonic Wind tunnel of the German Aerospace Center in Göttingen (TWG) under real flow conditions. Instantaneous pressure distributions are recorded in almost real time on a three-dimensional double-delta wing model. These pressure images can be interpreted as the `footprints' of the vortex field near the wall. Therefore the recognition and analysis of the vortex dynamics on the model surface are possible. Moreover even the vortex breakdown process as well as secondary vortex structures can be detected by this measurement technique.