Index 'w' for adiabatic skin temperature

[hvogt]

With a recent thread in Tech Log in mind, I read up about aircraft skin temperature in Torenbeek, E. and Wittenberg, H. (2009) Flight Physics, Springer. On pp. 503-504, the adiabatic skin temperature is referred to as T_w_ad (the underscores in lieu of subscript). No prizes for guessing the 'ad' stands for 'adiabatic', but what does the 'w' signify? Any ideas?

[Mad (Flt) Scientist]

I'll offer two guesses - "wall" (in reference to the fact that the skin is perhaps being modelled as the wall of the volume with the fluid in it) - or "wet" (in the sense of "wet bulb" temperature).

I have no strong basis for justifying either - they are simply guesses as to what it might be.

For example, this link (http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2FBF02133600#page-1) uses the term "adiabatic wall temperature"

[hvogt]

Thank you, Mad (Flt) Scientist. You're right, it must be 'wall'. There is even a hint in the text: "If no heat is transferred to the wall [...]". I wonder why I didn't see that.

[john_tullamarine]

Does the reference not contain a suitable list defining terms used ? If not, that would be a tad unusual.

[hvogt]

Thanks, John. The term itself is clear and properly defined in the text. I was just wondering why the 'w' was used as an index and not any other letter. As Mad (Flt) Scientist has said, it is 'w' for 'wall'.