MMAE Seminar - Dr. Harry Smith - Industrial Aerodynamics: An Overview of Commercial Wind Tunnel Testing and its Challenges

Armour College of Engineering's Mechanical, Materials & Aerospace Engineering Department will welcome Dr. Harry Smith, a Senior Aerodynamics Engineer at the Aircraft Research Association, to present his lecture, Industrial Aerodynamics: An Overview of Commercial Wind Tunnel Testing and its Challenges.

Abstract

The Aircraft Research Association (ARA) in Bedford, England, is Europe's most productive transonic wind tunnel facility. A sizeable proportion of civil and military aircraft flying today can do so safely thanks to data gathered during scale-model testing in ARA's 8 x 9 ft Transonic Wind Tunnel (TWT). Examples of notable aircraft include most Airbus civil aircraft, most Cessna business jets, Tornado, Eurofighter, and the F35.

Wind Tunnel Testing is an expensive business, with the price for a test ranging from $100k up to multimillions, depending upon what's involved. A compromise must be made between trialing new, state-of-the-art techniques and utilizing proven methodologies since every minute counts in an operation that uses enough electricity to cost more than $8k/hour.

Harry Smith is a Senior Aerodynamics Engineer at ARA, part of a group charged with successfully delivering new techniques to ARA.

In this talk today, he will discuss the challenges inherent in performing wind tunnel testing at the commercial level, from 'standard' performance testing to 'enhanced' optical methods. He will present a case study of data issues encountered during rotary testing and the rabbit hole of discovery he has had to go down to resolve them.

This elucidating talk aims to provide an appreciation of life at a self-funded research institution like ARA for those who have never seen a wind tunnel and for those who have worked at larger academic facilities.

Biography

On his path here, Harry has worked in many places, including the British Army and the Police Service. He chose to study Aeronautical Engineering because it was at the top of an alphabetized list – but he graduated at the top of his undergraduate class, which isn’t bad for someone who had a traumatic brain injury aged sixteen. After completing his master's, he worked on the certification of military helicopters before ultimately pursuing a PhD in propeller aerodynamics, where he taught classes in rotary aerodynamics and aeroelasticity.

He has worked at ARA since 2014 and has performed testing and analysis for customers around the world, with his role taking him from Milan to San Diego (and some less-exciting places) to provide technical consultation.

Harry's wife hails from Chicago, and the pair are set to move to the city in July 2018 – Harry will commence as an aerospace lecturer at IIT in August. He is tremendously excited about the opportunities ahead, even if it means he has to learn to use slugs, pounds, inches, and feet.