Calculation of Unsteady Aerodynamic Loads Using Fast-Response Pressure-Sensitive Paint

Many important physical problems in aero-sciences involve unsteady, separated flows. The ability to measure and compute these flows has been a persistent challenge. Unsteady aerodynamics leads to unsteady loads which ultimately decrease system performance and shortens the system lifetime. Currently, dynamic pressure transducers are used to study unsteady flow in wind tunnel tests, which are expensive and do not provide accurate integrated unsteady loads on a wind tunnel model.