A boundary layer inspection on a wing profile trough high resolution thermography and numerical methods

In fluid-dynamic phenomena the boundary layer plays a fundamental role. It also affects the drag and lift force of a body immersed in a fluid. Reynolds analogy introduces the possibility to correlate fluidynamic to thermal field. By using high sensitivity thermographic systems, temperature pattern on the surface of solid bodies immersed into a fluid can be analysed. Temperature distribution depends on many combined effects, such as: conversion of kinetic energy of the flow into thermal energy, flow temperature variation in time and space, convection heat transfer phenomena between flow and body, conduction phenomena inside the body, and radiation heath exchange. A numerical approach is used to compare results of the proposed procedure. A transient simulation with increasing inlet fluid temperature is carried out to evaluate the thermal exchange between the airstream and the body. The effect of the different thermal exchange due to the local flow peculiarity is modelled.