CANONICAL VALIDATION EXPERIMENTS FOR HYPERSONIC AERODYNAMICS
Abstract
Unsteady flow phenomena induced by shock interactions in hypersonic propulsion flow-paths can significantly impact the performance and robustness of flight vehicles, but remain imperfectly characterized and present significant modeling and prediction challenges. The proposed effort aims to improve the understanding and predictability of such phenomena, including shock-shock (SSI), shock/boundary-layer (SBLI), corner flow, and vortex/boundary-layer (VBLI) interactions, through the application of advanced, high?speed laser diagnostics in a canonical compression test article at flow speeds greater than or equal to Mach 5. A key gap in the knowledgebase is that detailed experiments that collect sufficient quantitiative data needed to support CFD technology advancement for hypersonic vehicle design, simulation and certification are exceedingly scarce. The deficiencies include a lack of characterization of the freestream, incoming state of the boundary layer, and experimental uncertainty. Also, there is clear absense of essential scientific measurements to guide and assess modeling; e.g., Reynolds stresses, flow quantity fluctuations, skin friction, etc.. Finally, most studies lack high spatial and temporal resolution of flow quantities. The result is a pressing need for high-quality experimental data to better understand the fundamental physics that govern the aero-propulsion performance of hypersonic vehicles and to improve computational predictability of key shock-interaction phenomena. The extensive spatiotemporally resolved flow-field characterization emerging from this work will help fill a critical gap for the DoD, strengthening the fundamental understanding of hypersonic-vehicle aero-propulsion performance, and enabling CFD validation and turbulence-model improvement to better deliver rapid, robust and accurate numerical predictions.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Aug 12, 2021
- Source ID
- FA95502010251
Entities
People
- Christopher Limbach
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- Texas A&M University
- United States Air Force