Examining Growth of Turbulence over Heated Walls in Hypersonic Flows
Abstract
Reflected shock tunnels can reproduce realistic pressures, speeds, and temperatures of atmospheric hypersonic flight, however, their short test time does not allow the structure of the models to thermally equilibrate to the temperatures that flight models experience. This project, therefore, fulfilled this gap via designing a heated flat plate model in order to overcome this limitation and leverage the notable flight-matched test capabilities of reflected shock tunnel hypersonic flow experiments. In year 1 of this project, it was aimed for the test model to reliably and rapidly achieve flight-realistic wall temperatures in the T4 free-piston driven shock tunnel at the University of Queensland. This was achieved using a rectangular graphite plate that was electrically heated to temperatures above 800K. The design of the heated model involved careful planning around safety, and ensuring that the support structures did not cause the plate to warp or bend when heating was applied and yet hold it firmly in place during the hypersonic tests. The design was rigorously assessed by a local team of experts from a safety perspective prior to the first vacuum/ Infrared thermography was employed to measure the surface temperature immediately before a test. Visualized flow-fields from schlieren imaging showed that the heated wall conditions made a significant difference in the growth of the boundary layer, and showed that the heated wall accelerated the boundary layer transition in hypersonic flows.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 25, 2022
- Accession Number
- AD1231092
Entities
People
- Ananthanarayanan Veeraragavan
Organizations
- University of Queensland