Comparison of Methods for Efficient Static Wind Tunnel Testing Using Multiple Control Surfaces

The Integrated Adaptive Wing Technology Maturation (IAWTM) half-span wind tunnel test article was tested in the Transonic Dynamics Tunnel (TDT) at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, VA. The test article has a wing aspect ratio of 13.5, wing half span length of 12.75 ft, and is configured similar to a transport aircraft. Static tests were performed to determine the nondimensional aerodynamic force and moment contributions from each of the 10 control surfaces over a range of deflection angles. Three different tests were used to obtain these data: conventional one factor at a time (OFAT) tests, design of experiment (DOE) tests, and quasi-steady sinusoid (QS2) tests. This paper presents the three approaches, and compares and contrasts the results. For the test data examined, analysis of all three tests determined models with statistically similar parameters. However, the DOE and QS2 tests were more efficient in time and had the possibility of modeling nonlinear interaction effects if they are significant.