Gridless Determination of Aerodynamic Loads Using Lagrangian Particle Tracks

The aerodynamic loads on a flexible wing in terms of the surface pressure distribution and the lift force along the span are determined experimentally based on non-intrusive Lagrangian particle tracking (LPT) measurements. As the flexible wing deforms under the aerodynamic loads, its deformed shape is first reconstructed based on structural LPT measurements conducted together with the flow measurements in an integrated approach. Based on the reconstructed wing shape, flow tracers data are collected along surface normals to evaluate the surface pressure, as well as along elliptic paths around the wing to determine the circulation. The lift force is calculated from the surface pressure by integrating the pressure difference along the chord, as well as from the circulation using the Kutta-Joukowski theorem. The circulation-based lift results
are in very good agreement with reference measurements from a force balance, with differences in the total lift force on the wing of less than 5%. The lift estimation based on the extrapolated surface pressure is consistently lower than the circulation-based lift, by about 10%, due to the limited accuracy of the pressure extrapolation near the leading edge region, where a considerable fraction of the lift is generated.