The company's air flow analyzer (AFA) measures boundary-layer transitions and pressure lines associated with laminar, transitional, and turbulent air flows associated with airfoil, rotor blade, and propeller surfaces. The AFA has two distinct advantages over existing flow analysis tools. First, it provides data from thousands of sense points; second, it does not interfere with the natural laminar flow of the airfoil surfaces. In addition, the light weight of the system should make it readily adaptable to a variety of in-flight tests. Instrumentation was the primary emphasis during Phase I, with the incorporation of new types of sensors. A demonstration using a thin-film, ferro-electric, sensor array proved the practicability of using piezo-polymeric devices to study boundary layer transition points and pressure lines. The real problem is to correlate the raw data into meaningful data. This was partially addressed in developing the algorithms for initial filtering of the raw data. It appears that a practical, sensitive, boundary-layer-transition instrument is feasible with refinement of the sensor array tested in this project. This system is now ready to be flight tested to implement a practical new instrument for many air-data-collection applications.Potential Commercial Application:The applications are as a boundary layer detector for wind tunnel and experimental aerodynamics, an air-data computer, and angle-of-attack instruments.STATUS: Phase I Only-
