Experimental evaluation of two turning vane designs for high-speed corner of 0.1-scale model of NASA Lewis Research Center's proposed altitude wind tunnel

Two turning vane designs were experimentally evaluated for corner 1 (downstream of the test section) of a 0.1-scale model of the NASA Lewis Research Center's proposed Altitude Wind Tunnel (AWT). Vane A was a controlled-diffusion airfoil shape; vane B was a circular-arc airfoil shape. The vane designs were tested over corner inlet Mach numbers from 0.16 to 0.465. Several modifications in vane setting angle and vane spacing were also evaluated for vane A. The overall performance obtained from total pressure rakes indicated that vane B had a slightly lower loss coefficient than vane A. At Mach 0.35 (the design Mach number without the engine exhaust removal scoop), the loss coefficients were 0.150 and 0.178 for vanes B and A, respectively. Resetting the vane A angle by -5 deg. (vane A10) to turn the flow toward the outside corner reduced the loss coefficient to 0.119. The best configuration (vane A10) was also tested with a simulated engine exhaust removal scoop. The loss coefficient for that configuration was 0.164 at Mach 0.41 (the approximate design Mach number with the scoop).