Improvement in Pressure Measurements Using Nanostructured Paints (NanoPSP)

The Pressure Sensitive Paint technique (PSP) is a non-intrusive optical technique which allows performing global and accurate measurements with a spatial resolution of a few micrometers. The pressure field around various models in supersonic flow was measured and mapped onto the 3D body surfaces. Forces and torques were determined from the pressure distribution and compared to steady Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes simulations. A good agreement could be observed between measurements and computations. The limitations of the PSP technique have also been discussed. An innovative solution consisted in using a nanostructured formulation of the paint. It was found that the nanostructuration could considerably improve the response time by giving a very high porosity to the paint.