We determine the aerodynamic forces and moments of airfoils and components in wind tunnel tests. Typical research goals are the modification or manipulation of the flow field, e.g. with blowing or suction, the reduction of drag, enhancement of lift or interactions between wing and propellers.
Many fundamental problems in fluid mechanics are best studied in specially designed generic experiments. Simplified environments are used, for example flat plates, simple channel flows or turbulent wakes, in order to separate the problem of interest from other influences and to be able to measure it as isolated as possible and under controlled boundary conditions.
"Active Flow Control" is a targeted and systematic manipulation of the flow field. In contrast to more classical approaches, such as surface shaping, we typically utilize additional energy sources, such as pressurized air for blowing or a pump for suction.
In measurements typically only parts of the flow field and/or individual flow variables are accessible. Numerical simulation methods are therefore used as a complementary and accompanying means for the analysis of flow fields, design predictions and comparison with experimental data. We investigate a wide range of temporal and spatial scales: From subsonic to hypersonic, from boundary layers to full geometries of aircraft or road vehicles. Data from numerical simulations offer the advantage that the entire physical fields are available as data sets.