INFORMATION ON THE ABLE 2 inch dia.

Mk XXI BALANCE
As the original material for the Able balance is of very poor quality for copying, here are the important details and also some remarks that might be of halp:

1 Balance identification and type

Balance type is Able 2inch Mk XXI Balance is of the force balance type it measures five components of force and one component of moment. The components are: Forward normal force N1 Aft normal force N2 Forward side force S1 Aft side force S2 Axial force AF Rolling moment RM

The location of the sensors for particular components and positive directions of components are shown in Fig. 1 below.

Fig. 1

Components of a Task/Able six-component balance

2 Calculation of total resulting loads

Axial force is directly transferred: Fx = FA Total side force is calculated as Fy = S1 + S2 Total normal force is obtained as a sum Fz = N1 + N2 Rolling moment is directly transferred: Mx = RM Pitching moment is My = N1a N2 a Yawing moment is Mz = S1b S2 b a = 92.08 mm, b = 76.20 mm

3 Measuring bridges and excitation

The balance measures six component by strain gauges organized into full Wheatstone bridges. All bridges have 350 resistance and excitation voltage is 6V .

Colour-coding for the bridge wiring in the cable is: Excitation + : red Excitation - : black Signal + (all components): green Signal (per component): - normal force N1: blue - normal force N2: white - side force S1: gray (see NOTE 2) - side force S2: yellow (see NOTE 2) - axial force AF: violet (fwd), violet/white (aft) (see NOTE 1) - rolling moment RM: orange (fwd), orange/white (aft) (see NOTE 1)

NOTE 1: The balance has two bridges for the axial force (AFfwd and AFaft). The cables from these two bridges MUST be connected in parallel at all four corners (+ excitation to + excitation, - excitation to excitation, + signal to + signal and signal to signal) (Fig. 2). Otherwise the calibration matrix will not apply. This feature is a part of the Able/Task corp. temperature compensation technique. For the same reason, there are two bridges for the rolling moment (RMfwd and RMaft). They should be connected in the same way.

Fig. 2 NOTE 2 For legacy reasons related to the orientation of axes systems used in VTI the Able MkXXI balance was calibrated with inverted positive directions of side forces (Fig. 3). In order for the calibration matrix to apply, the wires for sideforce components S1 and S2 should be connected as: S1 signal + : gray S1 signal - : green S2 signal + : yellow S2 signal - : green

Fig. 3

NOTE 3 The wire colour coding for the Able balance seems to be a de-facto standard for wind tunnel balance wiring. E.g. it is used in NASA Ames wind tunnel centre, in some other institutions, as well as in VTI. The coding ALMOST- agrees with the information received from LAGG except that the signal and excitation colours are INTERCHANGED. As the colour codes for identification components given with LAGG are identical with those for Able balances, and the remaining colours (red, black, green) are also the same, there is a chance that the information from LAGG contains an error. If it does not, care must be taken of this difference when connecting the Able balance.

4 Load range
Load range of individual components is: Forward normal force N1: Aft normal force N2: Forward side force S1: Aft side force S2: Axial force AF: Rolling moment RM: 15567 N 15567 N 6672 N 6672 N 1779 N 452 Nm of several components are defined by load-

Load ranges for simultaneous loadings rhombuses, i.e:

Max. normal force Fz = 31134 N at My = 0 Max. normal force Fz = 15575 N at My = 1433 Nm Max. normal force Fz = 0 at My = 2867 Nm Max pitching moment My = 2867 Nm at Fz = 0 Max pitching moment My = 1433 Nm at Fz = 15575 N Max pitching moment My = 0 Nm at Fz = 31134 N Max. side force Fy = 13345 N at Mz = 0 Max. side firce Fy = 6672 N at Mz = 1017 Nm Max. side force Fy = 0 at Mz = 1017 Nm Accuracy of measurement (95% certainty) is approximately 0.17 % FS for single-component loadings, but about 0.25 % FS to 0.30 % FS for any component in simultaneous loading of several components.