Research & Development
JAXA promotes three research and development programs and a fundamental research program that underpins them.
Digital/Analog-Hybrid Wind Tunnel (DAHWIN)
DAHWIN goes into full-scale operations
After five years of development, DAHWIN is now complete and in full-scale operation as of April 2013. DAHWIN combines a conventional wind tunnel ("analog" wind tunnel) with numerical simulation technology ("digital" wind tunnel) to create a "Digital/Analog Hybrid WINd tunnel."
Although analog wind tunnel can produce highly reliable data, the manufacturing of a model requires a considerable amount of time and money. The wind tunnel support system also has an impact on the experimental data. Meanwhile, computer simulations alone are not enough to guarantee reliability - the different physical models can produce different results. JAXA thus combined supercomputer-driven simulation data with analog wind tunnel data to compensate for both shortcomings and improved the efficiency and reliability of aircraft/spacecraft development.
April 1, 2013
