Integrated Instrumentation and Testing Systems (IITS)

Wind tunnel test cycles are currently a significant portion of the initial product definition phase within the overall aerospace vehicle development cycle. IITS is a project that combines advanced information technology with futuristic measurement technology to significantly reduce wind tunnel test cycles. In fact, with the gains that now seem possible, standard testing paradigms will change. Customers will not be requesting weeks of time in the tunnel, but rather a specific amount of accurate reliable data will be available within just days. Overall, the amount of CFD or wind tunnel testing that is performed during the design process will be dependent upon cost and schedule requirements, with the greatest reliance being placed upon the most efficient design tool. In order for wind tunnel testing to become one of the primary next-generation design tools, the entire testing process must be drastically shortened, by at least 6-fold from the current average test time, without sacrificing either the quantity or quality of data that can be acquired during the test.

Delta Wing

Within Integrated Design Technologies, sharing of the design data is paramount, but gathering the high-confidence experimental data is equally important. The Integrated Instrumentation and Test Systems (IITS) project will provide the foundation and backbone of this experimental design information/data gathering capability.

In order to support the architecture of the information system with the desired broad information and data generation capability, the IITS element is focusing on key implementations and demonstrations of technology applications in the following product areas: integrated instrumentation suites with test facility data and control systems, advanced instrumentation and test techniques for understanding system performance and advanced instrumentation and test techniques for understanding system performance and comparing and validating the computational fluid dynamic models, and complete remote access to the integrated knowledge sources associated with the test processes and database information.

Several key instrumentation suites are being improved and tightly integrated into the advanced aeronautics information system. These integrated systems and their resultant data will allow the design process to function in the desired high-frequency, parallel mode where the technical disciplines can readily evaluate the cross couplings and interactions between the various disciplines.

The objective of the IITS unified system is to allow the capture of as much data as possible at a given test condition. This system will eliminate the need for running multiple tests with different instrumentation systems; facilitate combining multiple disciplines, eliminating multiple test runs; and provide real-time data containing a greater impact on the design process. This project selects the instrumentation systems that are considered ripe for production implementation and have a basis for unification. These include Pressure-Sensitive Paint, Doppler Global Velocimetry, model position/deformation and acoustic microphone arrays. These systems are then developed into "industrial strength" systems while maintaining a closely integrated system. The project also provides focus for the further development of potential instrumentation systems such as shear- and temperature-sensitive coatings.

Providing a unified and cohesive access to the experimental data is a fundamental requirement for an improved design process. Being able to query and search across the data from a variety of systems implies the coordinated storage and management of the data. Several data management and indexing schemes have been developed to support various projects within the IT Base Program, DARWIN's meta-database and PrISM's database being two examples. The ATED and IITS elements are working to facilitate and integrate these efforts so that coordinated data can be presented and queried from many distributed resources.

The most significant impact of IITS is the integration of all of the above systems to improve the design cycle by better utilization of the experimental test process. The emphasis of IITS is to provide near real-time access to previously unavailable experimental data. In addition, this data will be provided in a design environment and integrated with analytical data through the ATED element. The synergistic relation between the ATED and IITS elements of the IT Base Program will provide for significant cost and time reductions in the design process.