This year's flight proved the suitability of the NRC Convair 580 for studying the way hurricanes evolve as they move North over the Canadian maritime region. The Convair 580 flew in Hurricane Michael for over four hours, collecting data and releasing 16 dropsondes. We were able to gather all the data that we hoped to, and it went very well. The system will use a pulsed laser, two CCD cameras, and a fog of atomized oil particles to get a clear picture of the flow field around a wind tunnel test subject. For automotive testing, for example, the balance can only provide information on lift and drag, not on the characteristics of the flow field.
Smoke can be a useful visual tool, but it is qualitative.
With PIV, the flow field can be seen and quantified. You can identify problems and opportunities for improvement much more quickly. IAR's clients and university collaborators have already expressed an interest in using the system to improve their tests. Bombardier Aerospace is testing the centre fuselage and NRC is testing the wing, while the aft fuselage is being tested in Australia. The program will save the Canadian government billions of dollars in replacement costs.