Design of Experiments with an Application to Laminar Flow Control Flight Research

2016, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Inc, AIAA. All rights reserved. Applying design of experiments (DOE) principles to flight research is difficult because of the practical limitations involved in safely testing aircraft. The experimenter must have an excellent understanding of technical requirements, safety considerations, and aircraft performance. DOE techniques are leveraged to characterize both the instrumentation and the system response in the experimental envelope. Procedures are developed to detect air data probe misalignment, reproduce airfoil pressure distributions across multiple sorties, and detect the effects spanwise-periodic, discrete roughness elements (DRE) on boundary layer transition locations. Factorials are presented to investigate various configurations of DREs while considering safety and aircraft performance restrictions. Flight data are gathered in sequential phases, so DOE algorithms are critical to understanding and controlling experimental error throughout the experiment. The results from one phase must be rigorously correlated to the results in subsequent phases. With planning, execution, and analysis tools guided by DOE, the error in the experimental observations can be quantified to support rigorous conclusions on the efficacy of DREs for laminar flow control.

Design of Experiments with an Application to Laminar Flow Control Flight Research Conference Paper