Influence of Dead Zones and Transonic Slewing on Thermal Blooming

Abstract

An experimental research program is being carried out to investigate two particular aspects of the thermal blooming problem. Thermal blooming is the self-induced effect which results from refractive index variations in the path of a laser beam caused by absorption of laser beam energy. The two aspects being investigated are the effect of transonic flow and also dead zones on the thermal distortion. When heat is added to flow at near sonic velocities severe density gradients and even shock waves can result. An experiment involving a CO2 laser and a blow down wind tunnel are being used to investigate this problem and a pulsed schlieren system is used to observe the density gradients.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Nov 12, 1973
Accession Number
AD0769945

Entities

People

  • David C. Smith
  • Frederick G. Gebhardt
  • Paul J. Berger
  • Robert T. Brown

Organizations

  • United Technologies Corporation

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Ground and Sea Platforms

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Blooming
  • Convection
  • Distortion
  • Flow
  • Fluid Flow
  • Heat Transfer
  • Laser Beams
  • Lasers
  • Light Sources
  • Mach Number
  • Radiation
  • Refractive Index
  • Relative Motion
  • Steady State
  • Thermal Blooming
  • Transonic Flow
  • Wind Tunnels

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Fluid Dynamics.
  • Optical Physics and Photonics.
  • Thermal Physics or Thermal Science.

Technology Areas

  • Directed Energy