Planes Under Pressure: Glowing

Paint Reveals Flight Physics

R.C. Dohare
B.E. (mech), M.E.(E.S.E.), PGDCSc.
 TO THE NAKED EYE:

• Pressure-sensitive paint (PSP)

looks unassuming to the naked
eye. But under short-spectrum
light and with special filtering
cameras, it can sport a
rainbow of information. The
paint is sprayed—much like
automotive paint—onto
models, such as the one here
being tested at
Arnold Air Force Base near
Tullahoma, Tenn. The paint is
removed with a solvent after
an aircraft or prototype is wind
tunnel tested.
IN THE RIGHT LIGHT:

• After planes are painted, dried and

put into a wind tunnel, operators
switch on short-wavelength light—
either blue or ultraviolet—which
bathes the tailless airplane model
seen here, activating dye
molecules in the paint. Although
the human eye cannot pick up the
subtle glow that the paint emits,
the change can be picked up by
special cameras and analyzed by
computers.
UNDER PRESSURE:

• When the wind tunnel is cranked

up to simulate flight conditions, the
brightness of the paint's glow on
the model's surfaces depends on
the varying pressure at different
points. The paint responds to
oxygen levels in the air—thus, the
more oxygen or pressure a point
gets the less it will glow. The paint
only puts off light in the red
spectrum, but thanks to computer
analysis, engineers can read the
pressure map in a full spectrum.
The colorful portrait allows them to
better understand the
aerodynamics of planes like this
Dornier Alpha Jet.
FULL-COLOR F16
• To get these data-rich maps of a
plane's air surfaces, each camera
actually takes two snapshots of an
area: a control shot without
airflow, then one during the wind
test. The computer then analyzes
the ratio of the paint's glow from
the two images to calculate the
pressure. Here, an image of an F–
16 was gleaned from PSP tests.
The results read out on a scale:
red is the highest pressure and
blue is the lowest.
PSYCHEDELIC SHUTTLE
• The PSP technology also works
on a model of the space shuttle.
One way to make these readings
especially useful to engineers,
notes Wim Ruyten, an associate
fellow at the American Institute of
Aeronautics and Astronautics who
has worked with the paint at
Arnold Air Force Base, is to
generate 3-D grids of the models.
To do that, models are outfitted
with small reference dots that then
help them turn two-dimensional
snapshots into three-dimensional
digital models.
HOT, HOTTER, HOTTEST
• Using much the same idea as
PSP, temperature-sensitive paint
has been used to show which
parts of an object are absorbing
the most heat. Here, a test of a
prototype of NASA's Orion Crew
Exploration Vehicle shows the
section of the craft's heat shield
likely to endure the most thermal
stress.