Flange balance application in high speed wind tunnel test of BWB aircraft

Abstract

Abstract In order to improve quality and efficiency of Blended Wing-Body (BWB) aircraft’s high-speed wind tunnel test, while verify the reliability and practicability of flange balance in the test of such a layout aircraft. The specific flange-connected balance of BWB aircraft was designed and processed, which was designed under the limits of aerodynamic load and model interspace size. The comparison test results between the flange balance and the traditional cone balance were obtained by conducting a comparison test in the 2.4-meters transonic wind tunnel. The results show that the flange balance has high measurement accuracy and good correlation with the traditional cone balance. Flange balance meets the requirement of BWB layout aircraft high speed wind tunnel test and has a broad application prospect, so that it could be popularized in the future.