Pressure Measurement on Rotating Propeller Blades by means of the Pressure-Sensitive Paint Lifetime Method

The pressure distribution on the surface of a high-speed rotating propeller was measured using the Pressure-Sensitive Paint (PSP) lifetime method. This paper describes the developed PSP formulation, an experimental setup as well as the image acquisition procedure and the data evaluation. The maximum rotational speed of the propeller was 9600 rpm, where sharp images could be obtained. The PSP lifetime method delivers a series of pressure distributions over time, with which even small pressure differences can be measured and aerodynamic phenomena such as vortices and flow separation can be detected. These phenomena occur very often on rotating blades. After pre-testing, a wind tunnel experiment was conducted in the low-speed wind-tunnel BLSWT of AIRBUS in Bremen with propeller rotation speeds up to 14400 rpm