Temperature Correction for Pressure-Sensitive Paint

A temperature correction has been developed to enable the extraction of pressure images and corresponding pressure data from images of photoluminescence of pressure-sensitive paints (PSPs). These paints are used on wind-tunnel models for mapping surface pressures associated with supersonic flow fields. PSP has been successfully used in wind-tunnel test ranging from 60 mi/h (97 km/h) to the supersonic range >3. The photoluminescence of an ideal PSP would depend on pressure only, but the photoluminescence of a real PSP depends on temperature also. In order to extract a pressure image, one must be able to invert the luminescence-image data on the basis, not only of the pressure dependence but also of the temperature dependence and of the distribution of temperature on the painted surface; in other words, one needs to incorporate a temperature correction into the pressure calibration of the luminescence of the paint.