Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Cryogenic strain gage techniques used in force balance design for the National Transonic Facility

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:5078048
A force balance is a strain gage transducer used in wind tunnels to measure the forces and moments on aerodynamic models. Techniques have been established for temperature-compensation of force balances to allow their use over the operating temperature range of a cryogenic wind tunnel (-190C to 60C) without thermal control. This was accomplished by using a patented strain gage matching process to minimize inherent thermal differences, and a thermal compensation procedure to reduce the remaining thermally-induced outputs to acceptable levels. A method of compensating for mechanical movement of the axial force measuring beam caused by thermally-induced stresses under transient temperatures was also included.
Research Organization:
National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Hampton, VA (USA). Langley Research Center
OSTI ID:
5078048
Report Number(s):
N-86-27618; NASA-TM-87712
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English