Description and Flow Characterization of Hypersonic Facilities

Abstract

Hypersonic test facilities will continue to play a major role in the development of hypersonic vehicles. In the past, ground test facilities were often used to perform configuration parametric studies and/or to develop large databases. Future testing will emphasize understanding of fluid physics and validation of codes. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has made great progress in the past two decades, but the marriage of CFD and ground testing is clearly a reality today, and will become even more important in the future. One of the challenges for the experimentalist is to develop and utilize facilities that simulate hypersonic flight, and to provide the required data precision to validate CFD codes. This provides a brief review of facility fundamental considerations and simulation issues. It is clear that no one facility will meet the wide variety of test objectives; therefore, the test facilities span a range of size, run time, complexity, and operating cost. Representative facilities are described, as well as their test capabilities, flow quality, and deficiencies. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD), Ground testing, High-Enthalpy facilities, Aerodynamic testing, Aerothermal testing

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Aug 01, 1994
Accession Number
ADA284291

Entities

People

  • Andrea Anderson
  • J. R. Maus
  • R. A. Crawford
  • R. K. Matthews

Organizations

  • Arnold Engineering Development Complex

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Boundary Layer
  • Combustion
  • Computational Fluid Dynamics
  • Electric Arcs
  • Fluid Dynamics
  • Fluid Flow
  • Heat Transfer
  • Hypersonic Vehicles
  • Materials Testing
  • Pressure Distribution
  • Pressure Measurement
  • Propulsion Systems
  • Shock Tunnels
  • Test And Evaluation
  • Test Facilities
  • Wind Tunnels

Fields of Study

  • Engineering
  • Physics

Readers

  • Computational Modeling and Simulation
  • Fluid Dynamics.
  • Systems Analysis and Design

Technology Areas

  • Hypersonics
  • Hypersonics - Hypersonic Flow