EXPERIMENTAL WIND TUNNEL TESTING OF SHARP-EDGED DELTA WING UNDER ROLLING AND PITCHING MOTION

Abstract

This study presents an experimental investigation of aerodynamic characteristics of a sharp-edged delta wing that is undergoing controlled rolling and pitching motions in a low-speed wind tunnel. Delta wings have been distinguished by their distinctive capacity to maintain lift at high angles of attack as a result of formation of leading-edge vortices. The wind tunnel tests were conducted in the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia’s Low-Speed Tunnel with a freestream velocity of 25 m/s, which corresponds to a Reynolds number of 1.288 × 10⁶ based on the wing model’s root chord. In the experiments, the delta wing model, designed with a 65° sweep angle, was subjected to sinusoidal rolling and pitching motions at amplitudes of 10° and frequencies of 1000 Hz. The surface pressure distributions were obtained by using an array of 106 pressure taps and they were corrected for solid blockage using the Maskell method. On the whole, the results reveal that unsteady motions significantly influence the vortex development, symmetry and breakdown location, with phase lags observed between the motion and the aerodynamic response. These findings provide an essential benchmark data for computational fluid dynamics (CFD) validation and aerodynamic design of maneuvering delta-wing configurations.