Six-component strain-gage balances for large wind tunnels

ONERA, the French Aerospace Research Institute, currently design, manufacture and calibrate the many dynamometers and balances, measuring one or several components, necessary for the tests in the large wind tunnels and other installations of its Modane-Avrieux and Le Fauga-Mauzac Centers, as well as those requested by external organizations, in France or abroad. The number of dynamometric sensors realized since 1955 amounts to several hundreds. Their capacities range from 0.01 N to 1000 kN. Their precision is usually about 10^?3, but may reach 10^?4. This paper describes the problems concerning the metallic architecture of the multicomponent balances, their strain-gage and electric equipment, thermal effects and their compensation it presents the general principles and the means used for the calibration of these balances.