Design Validation Tests on a Realistic Hypersonic Waverider at Mach 10, 14, and 16.5 in the Naval Surface Warfare Center Hypervelocity Wind Tunnel No. 9

Abstract

A realistic hypersonic waverider was tested in the Navy's Hypervelocity Wind Tunnel No. 9 in late Spring of 1993. Sponsored by the McDonnell Douglas Space Systems Company, Huntington Beach, and the United States Air Force Ballistic Missile Organization, Norton Air Force Base, tests at Mach numbers of 10, 14, and 16.5 were conducted to measure static stability and drag, to determine the distributions of surface pressure and heat transfer, and to obtain flow-visualization data. The two principal objectives of this test program were to validate the methodology for designing performance-optimized hypersonic waveriders and to obtain data on a complex hypersonic configuration for validation of computational fluid dynamic codes. The waverider design included realistically blunted leading edges and was optimized on an arbitrary figure of merit to include fluid viscosity and internal volume. The design condition of Mach 14 and Reynolds number based on length of 6.5 million was chosen based on the facility capabilities. All data appeared to be independent of Mach number and virtually insensitive to changes in Reynolds number; moreover, all data displayed excellent repeatability. The lift-to-drag ratio of this waverider with realistic leading-edge radii was found to be relatively high. Waverider, CFD, Leading edges.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 05, 1994
Accession Number
ADA279658

Entities

People

  • Mark E. Kammeyer
  • Michael J. Gillum

Organizations

  • Naval Surface Warfare Center

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Ballistic Missiles
  • Boundary Layer
  • Computational Fluid Dynamics
  • Data Acquisition
  • Fabrication
  • Flow Visualization
  • Fluid Dynamics
  • Free Stream
  • Heat Transfer
  • Mach Number
  • Measurement
  • Pressure Measurement
  • Space Systems
  • Standards
  • Surface Temperature
  • United States

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Aerodynamics/Aeronautics.
  • Computational Modeling and Simulation
  • Fluid Dynamics.

Technology Areas

  • Hypersonics
  • Hypersonics - Hypersonic Boundary Layers
  • Hypersonics - Hypersonic Flow
  • Space
  • Space - Hall-Effect Thruster