Kickoff Meeting

The Kickoff Meeting of ESTRO project took place at the Department of Industrial Engineering of the University of Salerno on April 17th 2019. The agenda of the meeting and a photo gallery is available here.

Call for Tender for WT Selection

The ESTRO consortium is now preparing the technical specification for the launch of an European Call for tender for the assignment of the contract for the wind tunnel test campaign. The test matrix described in the topic JTI-CS2-2018-CFP08-REG- 03-01 has been reviewed in cooperation with the TM. The CfT will be prepared according to the Italian law and its launch is expected for February 2020. More info on this point will be available soon.

Amendment

The initial plan of ESTRO foresaw the launch of a European Call for tender for the assignment of the contract for the wind tunnel test campaign. In the face of the difficulties experienced by ESTRO consortium in launching a European Call for Tender (CfT), in order to minimise the risks related to the outcome of a CfT, JU suggested to directly involve a WT provider as part of the consortium. Among the possible WT providers satisfying the proposal requirements, DNW offered to test the model in the LLF WT, where flow Mach numbers up to 0.38 can be reached. An amendment to the project was therefore launched (September 2020) and approved (April 2021) to let DNW enter the ESTRO consortium and to reschedule the experimental and CFD activities, taking in consideration the substantial delays experienced by the model manufacturers in finalising the design and build the WT model for the test campaign.

Wind Tunnel Campaign

Technical problems in the manufacture of the wing postponed significantly the expected delivery of the model, scheduled at last for the first days of November 2021, resulting in a significant reduction in the preparation time of the model inside the wind tunnel test section and a delay in the start of the experimental campaign. During the preparation phase inside the WT, several functionality issues were found and solved. The experimental campaign started on December 8th 2021. All entries of the revised test matrix were completed by December 22nd, 2021. On December 23rd, 2021 the model was removed from the test section and was later shipped back to DLR.

WT Data Provision

WT data were made available to LDO on April 7th 2021. After some checks, a new reduction for the SPR (Stereo Pattern Recognition) data was necessary to correct problems found in the deformation data which were uploaded again in their final form on June 3rd 2021. A technical reports (LLF-Report-T1673-ESTRO.pdf), produced by DNW, with information concerning the reference system used, calibration and precision of balance and other instruments, repeatability of measures and model non-conformities, was uploaded on ESTRO Workspace on SP to complement the WT data on July 4th 2021 and included in deliverable D2.3. The data concerning the measurements of the experimental campaign can be retrieved by authorised users at the following address : https://projectsworkspace.eu/sites/REG-IADP/ESTRO/_layouts/15/start.aspx#/

Post processing of WT Data and CFD Analysis

After the provision of the WT data, as of June 2022, the ESTRO consortium is finalising the research activities related to the post processing of the acquired data and their extrapolation to flight conditions. Several activities are in progress including the characterisation of the aerodynamic performances to flight conditions, the evaluation of the effects of both Reynolds and Mach number on flow laminarity, the analysis of the impact of the wing deformation on the performances of the model, …..

ESTRO Closing Meeting

The ESTRO consortium is now preparing the closing meeting of the project, which will be held on February 21st. 2023 at the University of Salerno. During the meeting a review of the activities and of the achieved results will be illustrated.