A wind-tunnel test section with closed upper wall, slotted side walls, and open lower boundary was found theoretically to produce zero tunnel-boundary lift interference on a small wing with horizontal wake mounted at the center of the test section. For this test section the variation of the interference with angle of the vortex wake behind a high-lift-coefficient model was not large. Because of the small slot widths required for zero interference and of the effects of boundary layer, the theory is regarded as unreliable for predicting the slot widths required; however, the variation of the interference with the slot width for widths somewhat greater than those needed for zero interference was found to be small. The interference in the region likely to be occupied by the tall of a model was investigated in some detail and was found to change with slot width and with wake angle more strongly than did the interference at the lifting element. A limited investigation of the lift interference in a test section with closed upper wall and slotted side and lower boundaries was made to obtain the theoretically indicated slot width required for zero lift interference at a center-mounted wing with the wake horizontal.

The wind tunnel boundary interference on a V/STOL model is calculated in a rectangular test section with solid vertical walls and ventilated (perforated or slotted) horizontal walls. The interference is found by applying the small perturbation theory of an incompressible fluid to the boundary value problem. The theory uses an image method in addition to Fourier transforms with an equivalent homogeneous boundary condition on the ventilated wall. The mathematical representation of the V/STOL model accounts for the curvature and decay of the wake. The assumption of a constant wake strength produces a paradox in that the maximum value of the interference factors increases as the initial jet velocity decreases. The most significant aspect of the analysis shows that nonlinear cross-flow effects at the tunnel boundary are important in the V/STOL case, and a quasi-linear approximation to these effects is introduced into the solution providing good agreement with experimental data.

Under sufficiently large wake deflections, the forward portion of the wake is found to flow forward along the floor leading to a vortex pattern which results in Rae's limits (Journal of Aircraft, May-June 1967). Although wind-tunnel data cannot normally be corrected successfully beyond these limits, it may be possible to obtain ground-effect data for conditions more severe than those implied by Rae.