Experimental Investigations on Beamed Energy Aerospace Propulsion
Abstract
The Laser Propulsion (LP) experiments employed the T3 Hypersonic Shock Tunnel (HST), integrated with twin gigawatt pulsed Lumonics 620-TEA CO(2) lasers to produce the required test conditions. This effort was carried out at nominal Mach numbers ranging from 6 to 10. Time-dependent surface pressure distributions were recorded together with schlieren movies of the flow field structure resulting from the laser energy deposition. These visualizations of inlet and absorption chamber flowfields enabled the qualitative analysis of important phenomena impacting laser-propelled hypersonic air-breathing flight. The data indicated laser-induced pressure increases of 0.7- 0.9 bar with laser pulse energies of approx. 170 J, on off-shroud induced breakdown condition, and free stream Mach number of 6. The results of this research corroborate the feasibility of laser powered, airbreathing flight with infinite specific impulse (Isp=infinity).
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2012
- Accession Number
- ADA582456
Entities
People
- Israel I. Salvador
- Marco A. Minucci
- Paulo G. Toro