Thermography investigations and numerical analysis of turbulent and laminar flow at light weight structures

Abstract

Thermography (IR) allows global visualization of temperature distribution on surfaces with high accuracy. This potential can be used for visualization of fluid mechanics effects at the intersection of laminar and turbulent flows, where temperature jumps appear due to convection and friction i.e. for the optimization in the design of airplane geometries. In civil engineering too it is the aspiration of the modern engineer of light weight structures to meet singular loads like wind peaks rather by intelligent structures and materials than by massive structures. Therefore the "Institute of Conceptual and Structural Design" of the Technical University of Berlin (TUB) is working on the development of adaptive structures, optimized geometry and intelligent microstructures on surfaces of structural elements.The paper shows the potential of modern computational fluid dynamics (CFD) in combination with thermography (IR) to optimize structures by visualization of laminar-tumultuous border layer currents. Therefore CFD simulations and IR wind tunnel experiments will be presented and discussed. For simulations and experiments -artificial and structural elements of the cable-stayed Strelasund Bridge, Germany, are used.