Uncertainty Quantification of a Seven Hole Pressure Probe

Abstract

Wake bursting is a flowfield phenomena that can occur over the flaps of airplane wings. Wake bursting is not desired as it increases drag and decreases lift. An experiment took place in the University of Illinois low-speed low-turbulence wind tunnel that studied the effects of wake bursting over a multi-element airfoil. Data were collected by a seven-hole pressure probe in the wind tunnel by a small team of students. Angle of attack (α) and side slip angle (β) of the probe and velocity (v) of the air in the wind tunnel can be determined from measured data. My research assists a larger project on campus by aiding in uncertainty quantification of 7-hole probe data collected from the wind tunnel. In order to determine the accuracy of the data, methods were implemented to quantify uncertainty of 7-hole probe measurements. The jitter method was imbedded into an already existing MATLAB code that checked the calibrated data with the measured data. The overall uncertainties were 0.2857'° for α, 1.2032'° for β and 0.0481% for v It was determined that these uncertainties were small enough for the results to be valid.