Purpose
This paper aims to report on the physical distortions associated with the use of additive manufactured components for wind tunnel testing and procedures adopted to correct for them.
Design/methodology/approach
Wings of a joined-wing test aircraft configuration were fabricated with additive manufacturing and tested in a subsonic closed-loop wind tunnel. Wing deflections were observed during testing and quantified using image-processing procedures. These quantified deflections were then incorporated into numerical simulations and results had agreed with wind tunnel measurement results.
Findings
Additive manufacturing provides cost-effective wing components for wind tunnel test components with fast turn-around time. They can be used with confidence if the wing deflections could be accounted for systematically and accurately, especially at the region of aerodynamic stall.
Research limitations/implications
Significant wing flutter and unsteady deflections were encountered at higher test velocities and pitch angles. This reduced the accuracy in which the wing deflections could be corrected. Additionally, wing twists could not be quantified as effectively because of camera perspectives.
Originality/value
This paper shows that additive manufacturing can be used to fabricate aircraft test components with satisfactory strength and quantifiable deflections for wind tunnel testing, especially when the designs are significantly complex and thin.
Our ability to select relevant information from the environment is limited by the resolution of attention – i.e., the minimum size of the region that can be selected. Neural mechanisms that underlie this limit and its development are not yet understood. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was performed during an object tracking task in 7- and 11-year-old children, and in young adults. Object tracking activated canonical fronto-parietal attention systems and motion-sensitive area MT in children as young as 7 years. Object tracking performance improved with age, together with stronger recruitment of parietal attention areas and a shift from low-level to higher-level visual areas. Increasing the required resolution of spatial attention – which was implemented by varying the distance between target and distractors in the object tracking task – led to activation increases in fronto-insular cortex, medial frontal cortex including anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and supplementary motor area, superior colliculi, and thalamus. This core circuitry for attentional precision was recruited by all age groups, but ACC showed an age-related activation reduction. Our results suggest that age-related improvements in selective visual attention and in the resolution of attention are characterized by an increased use of more functionally specialized brain regions during the course of development.
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