Measurement of the aerodynamic coefficients of re-entry vehicles in short duration hypersonic facilities

Measurements of aerodynamic forces and moments in short duration hypersonic facilities require the application of compensation techniques to remove the inertial forces from the strain gauge balance data. Three compensation techniques are described and applied on re-entry vehicle testing using sting-mounted strain gauge balances. Experiments are carried out in three European hypersonic wind tunnels with running times varying from 200 ms to 2 ms. Advantages, drawbacks and limitations of each compensation method are illustrated and discussed. The critical analysis of the compensated results obtained allows one to establish guidelines to ensure satisfactory accuracy levels in the measurement of aerodynamic coefficients in this particular type of facility.