INVESTIGATION OF HIGH-SPEED PARTICLE EROSION OF MELTING AERODYNAMIC SURFACES
Abstract
The impact of atmospheric moisture particles on ablating hypersonic bodies was studied experimentally and theoretically. Various factors involved in the simulation of impacts with atmospheric-moisture particles during re-entry are discussed. The phenomena was studied experimentally in a rocket exhaust jet using small solid and liquid particles to simulate atmospheric moisture. Factors which could not be simulated in the rocket-exhaust-jet tests were analyzed theoretically. The experimental data were correlated using a mechanism based on the dissipation of particle energy in the melt layer. The results were extrapolated to the conditions of atmospheric re-entry. The results indicate that the ablation rate on a nose cone following a 3000 NM trajectory increases by a factor of 2 during flight through a cloud as a result of impacts with fine ice particles or water droplets.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 15, 1959
- Accession Number
- AD0260428
Entities
People
- E. W. Ungar
Organizations
- Battelle Memorial Institute