Art meets science in unique Tunnel 9 test of a 'bird...in flight'

  • Published
  • By Philip Lorenz III
  • AEDC/PA
ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, Tenn. --  Student activities at the Arnold Engineering Development Complex's (AEDC) Hypervelocity Wind Tunnel 9 at White Oak near Silver Spring, Md., take various forms depending both upon the specific technological interests of the test facility's team and the abilities and interests of the particular student or faculty advisor.

"This year saw the most unusual student project take form," said Dan Marren, AEDC Hypervelocity Wind Tunnel 9's director. "During the summer, a geometry resembling an old sculpture was tested by our students."

With the test facility at record operational levels supporting the high priority Conventional Prompt Global Strike program in addition to its normal customer set, one might think that mentor and student activities might take a back seat. This was not the case.

"We just have to find that balance between national priorities and sowing the seeds of future scientists and engineers," Marren said.

The AEDC White Oak site found a way to challenge the students while at the same time show campus synergy at the Federal Research Center at White Oak - the property that AEDC White Oak occupies with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

This opportunity came about as a result of Marren's participation with Labquest, a public private partnership formed during the 1995 Base Closure and Realignment Commission to manage the campus post Department of Defense use activities. Marren sits on the executive board of Labquest and as such frequently interacts with the FDA, local stakeholders and the General Services Administration (GSA) who manages the property on which Tunnel 9 resides.

The GSA, which builds and maintains all the structures on campus, also contracts for art projects associated with buildings they produce. By federal law, under the GSA Art in Architecture Program, a percentage of construction costs from GSA are reserved for art in each building.

GSA finds talented artists to tour the activity, gain a sense of the mission, and create art for the building, appropriate for the employees. With a project this large - more than $1 billion and spanning some 20 years - there is plenty of opportunity for art.

Typically it is desirable for the motivation and inspiration of the art on campus to be taken from the mission of the campus.

Four prior artists have accomplished works with inspiration coming from the Food and Drug Administration science and their art has represented that organization's mission.

When construction began on the FDA's building 71 - intended to house their Center for Bilologics Evaluation and Research - the fifth American artist in the series, Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle, toured the campus to propose an art piece that fit the mission. By request, the artist, who specializes in science-related art, asked to see AEDC's Hypervelocity Wind Tunnel 9.

By the end of the tour, the artist suggested creating art inspired from the wind tunnel. The thought is that such art would serve to raise awareness of the FDA employees to the existence of the U.S. Air Force mission that shares their campus.

"At first I was skeptical that art in the wind tunnel could work, the more I thought about it however, it made a lot of sense for several reasons," Marren said. "This opportunity would allow our students to get involved in learning about test processes and aerodynamics on a test specimen that could exist in open literature."

Marren knew that Tunnel 9 would not be available for a single-entry non-mission related test until around February 2013. However he reasoned that an initial test of the sculpture at Mach 3 in a wind tunnel for college students would satisfy several objectives.

"We have a very capable student wind tunnel that the students built and maintain," he said. "They run it and it gives them an opportunity to get more directly involved and run the whole program from soup to nuts. This was a great opportunity to actually be able to grow them in a way that would challenge them, just like a test in Tunnel 9 would."

Erin Hedlund, a rising senior in the Science, Mathematics, Computer Science Magnet Program at Montgomery Blair High School, had worked at Tunnel 9 as a summer intern in 2011.

"When I wanted to work at Wind Tunnel 9 again for the summer of 2012, Dan Marren asked me if I would be interested in working on the Bird in Space project," she said. "The FDA's and the artist's objectives were to obtain Schlieren images. The artist will use these images as inspiration for the sculpture he will create for an FDA building.

"The objectives the Wind Tunnel 9 staff wanted to accomplish were to test out new technology, such as focused Schlieren methods, while uniting the FDA and Wind Tunnel 9. The Wind Tunnel 9 staff also wanted to use the project to update wind tunnel procedures and documents."

Hedlund also worked with Manglano-Ovalle during the project.

"I interacted with the artist during the test," she said. "He was very interested in the scientific aspect of everything. He really wanted to understand how everything worked, and what each piece of machinery did. He was also very excited about how the Schlieren images looked during start up and shut down of the run."

Dr. Eric C. Marineau, Lead Aerospace Technologist at AEDC White Oak - Tunnel 9, said he enjoyed working with Hedlund on the project.

"I helped Erin Hedlund with the design calculation for the Mach 3 and Mach 10 test article, mostly to estimate the aerodynamic loads," he said. "It has been a positive and rewarding experience to help Erin and transmit my knowledge...especially since Erin was motivated and eager to learn."

Will Vodra, Tunnel 9's systems engineer for model and test cell support, took the role as the lead engineer for the "Bird in Flight" project.

"Due to the small size of the Mach 3 model, I designed a sting to support it and worked with the artist, Inigo, to integrate the sting into a single piece of metal being both the model and sting," Vodra said. "I also modified our Mach 3 Test Cell to support a bottom-mounted sting with minimal impact to tunnel airflow. I documented the aero loads that Erin had computed and then I performed our standard Model Support analysis and wrote the safety package. The primary goal was for a good Schlieren image that needed to be similar to the upcoming Mach 10 view. Erin and I disassembled and reassembled the Mach 3 nozzle and test cell to build up for this test. As project lead, I worked with the optics engineer to prepare the test and with Erin to operate the Mach 3 tunnel and conduct the test."

Vodra said the unorthodox project was an unexpected learning experience for him and his colleagues at Tunnel 9.

"The Bird in Space was sculpted in the 1920's - and has unexpectedly good aerodynamic efficiency at hypersonic speeds, a goal not achieved by engineering for decades," Vodra said. "That was a big surprise for us; we had not thought much about the likelihood that a sculpture at these speeds even would work, much less be efficient.

"We continually became more interested in the design as we reviewed it in preparation of the run. Since we also use our Mach 3 Test Cell for development of new optical methods, we would like to use the Bird in Space again due to its interesting shockwaves and other characteristics. When we test at Mach 10, we will continue our development of another new optical technique, Background Oriented Schlieren."

For Marren, the project had brought him back in touch with the high school students' father, Eric Hedlund, who had been Tunnel 9's technical director years ago and who, along with others there, had played a role in mentoring Marren.

"When I arrived at Tunnel 9 in 1984 as a student, Dr. Eric Hedlund helped mentor me to become a test engineer," Marren said. "Now, almost 30 years later I get to mentor Erin in much the same way. You can say Eric 'paid it forward' and I'm paying it back."

Erin is looking forward to the Mach 10 testing of the sculpture at Tunnel 9 in February. She reflected on how she chose to pursue science in high school and how she came to play a role in the project at Tunnel 9.

"My father has always pushed me to do my best," she said. "He used to work at the wind tunnel. When I wanted to get a summer internship, he encouraged me and helped me have an opportunity to work at the wind tunnel. It was fun to meet the people he worked with and work where he had worked. It was interesting to hear stories about his career. He has been an inspiration."

Regarding her future, she said, "I am not sure yet which college I will be going to because I am in the process of applying. I plan to major in engineering, but I am not yet sure which type. I do look forward to being a mentor for people the way my mentors at the wind tunnel have been for me."