Recent Literature on Wind Tunnel Test Section Interference Related to Ground Vehicle Testing 2007-01-1050

Comparability of measured aerodynamic properties is important in the car industry. The understanding of test section interference is a key factor when testing ground vehicles in different wind tunnels. Special publications (SP) on this topic were prepared by SAE sub-committees in the past, where both closed wall and open jet test sections were covered. Although the information in these SP's is not outdated, a lot of new investigations have contributed to the existing knowledge. The aim of this paper is to give a brief survey of the available new literature, which was published afterwards.

In order to give easy access to the information, the new literature is clustered in the paper according to the different approaches to the analysis of test section interference. The available benchmark data is ordered according to their origin (full scale, model scale, CFD). Different methods to correct for interference effects (empirical correlations, analytical flow models, simplified and full CFD) are discussed separately. Special topics like the influence of flow gradients, lift corrections, pad corrections, sting interference and q-determination are also covered. Finally a glossary for wind tunnel interference problems is given.