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Virginia Tech

Design of Gages for Direct Skin Friction Measurements in Complex Turbulent Flows with Shock Impingement Compensation

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

This research produced a new class of skin friction gages that measures wall shear even in shock environments. One test specimen separately measured wall shear and variable-pressure induced moment. Through the investigation of available computational modeling methods, techniques for accurately predicting gage physical responses were developed. The culmination of these model combinations was a design optimization procedure. This procedure was applied to three disparate test conditions: 1) short-duration, high-enthalpy testing, 2) blow-down testing, and 3) flight testing. The resulting optimized gage designs were virtually tested against each set of nominal load conditions. The finalized designs each successfully met their respective test condition constraints while maximizing strain output due to wall shear. These gages limit sources of apparent strain: inertia, temperature gradient, and uniform pressure. A unique use of bellows provided a protective shroud for surface strain gages. Oil fill provided thermal and dynamic damping while eliminating uniform pressure as a source of output voltage. Two Wheatstone bridge configurations were developed to minimize temperature effects first from temperature gradient and then from spatially varying heat flux induced gradient. An inertia limiting technique was developed that parametrically investigated mass and center of gravity impact on strain output. Multiple disciplinary computational simulations of thermal, dynamic, shear, moment, inertia, and instrumentation interaction were developed. Examinations of instrumentation error, settling time, filtering, multiple input dynamic response, and strain gage placement to avoid thermal gradient were conducted. Detailed mechanical drawings for several gages were produced for fabrication and future testing.

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Ph. D.
Level thesis:degree_level
doctoral
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Aerospace and Ocean Engineering
Department dc:contributor.department
Aerospace and Ocean Engineering
Grantor dc:publisher
Virginia Tech
Year dc:date.issued
2007

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Rolling, August Jameson
Chair dc:contributor.committeechair
  • Schetz, Joseph A.
Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember
  • Boyer, Keith M.
  • Hallauer, William L. Jr.
  • MacLean, Matthew
  • Kapania, Rakesh K.

Subjects

dc:subject × 4

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • In Copyright

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Dc Identifier Other
etd-06212007-161239
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/28093

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Virginia Tech
Base URL
vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-22
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Rolling, August Jameson. Design of Gages for Direct Skin Friction Measurements in Complex Turbulent Flows with Shock Impingement Compensation. doctoral thesis, Virginia Tech, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/28093