The students arrived in the morning of 11 December 2024 and took part in a measurement in the evening. Beforehand, they were given background information on the measurement campaign in a packed program. After an introductory lecture by Thorsten Lutz on the scientific objectives of the research group, the motivation and the preliminary planning of the specific test campaign, Ulrich Henne (DLR) gave a very clear and interesting presentation of the PSP (Pressure Sensitive Paint) measurement technique used to measure the steady as well as the unsteady surface pressure distributions on the wing. The aim of this measurement campaign was the active excitation of small model vibrations in the frequency range of the three-dimensional transonic buffet and the study of interactions between the unsteady flow and the structural vibrations. Such measurements have not yet been carried out on transport aircraft configurations at high Reynolds numbers and should support to answer central research questions of FOR 2895. In the afternoon, Peter Guntermann (ETW) gave
the students an interesting and comprehensive tour of the test facilities, including preparation rooms, the control room and the pilot ETW, a scaled-down version of the ETW. After this preparation and a small refreshment together, the participants accompanied the first part of the evening measurements live in the control room and were able to witness the concentrated work of the ETW team, the DLR measurement team and the representatives of the research group, the in-situ measurement data evaluation and analysis.
The second day began with a brief summary of the measurements conducted the day before, the challenges encountered and an initial conclusion by Thorsten Lutz. Matthias Schulz (ETW), the test engineer responsible for the campaign, then gave an informative and exciting report on the time-consuming preparation of measurement campaigns at ETW and the coordination with customers, with a special focus on past measurements as part of FOR 2895. The participants once again realised how much effort and commitment is required to successfully carry out such high-quality and challenging measurements for scientific purposes. The students then had the opportunity to see ‘hot off the press’ initial analyses of unsteady PSP pressure measurements from the previous evening, with Ulrich Henne also explaining and demonstrating the evaluation procedures. The organisers were very pleased to see the students' interest and to hold this event. Conversely, the students had many words of praise in their short reports for the committed and interesting information provided by the ETW team, Ulrich Henne and the FOR representatives.