Transonic assessment of two-dimensional wind tunnel wall interference using measured wall pressures

A method is described for assessing wall interference in two dimensional wind tunnels with better realism and accuracy than is achieved with methods based on classical wall interference theory. Measured pressure distributions were imposed as boundary conditions on a nonlinear transonic form of the potential equation to obtain an accurate computational reproduction of the actual tunnel flow. Wall-induced velocity perturbations were then extracted to yield both corrections to the tunnel test conditions and a measure of the adequacy of these corrections to account for tunnel interference. Application of the method to a transonic tunnel with variable porosity walls is illustrated.