Wall Corrections for CIRA Icing Wind Tunnel Secondary Test Section - Equipment Design, Realization and Performance Evaluation

Within the icing certification process of a new military helicopter, it was required to CIRA to perform an extensive icing test campaign on different sections of the helicopter blade: the tests were executed in the Secondary Test Section of the CIRA Icing Wing Tunnel. In order to fulfill the strict requirements concerning the aerodynamic loads measurements, a preliminary aerodynamic test campaign was carried out, before the icing tests, to define a wall-corrections procedure. To this aim, it was necessary to design and build dedicated test equipments for the aerodynamic tests execution. This work presents the process leading to the technical specifications for the used equipments, the test equipments design and some constructive details. Finally, some wind tunnel tests results are presented and discussed, together with a wide description of the preliminary calibration tests and the accuracy analysis.