Hypersonic Mach10OD Flight Experiments for High-Speed Propulsion Detonation Fundamentals
Abstract
Achieving ultra-high-speed flight at hypersonic speeds is now a national priority and an international focus driving the hypersonics and space race. Such systems would allow flight through our atmosphere at very high speeds and allow efficient entry and exit from planetary atmospheres making hypersonic defense systems, space exploration, and intercontinental travel as routine as intercity travel is today. Advanced hypersonic propulsion systems are needed to maintain the technological superiority of DoD, U.S. Air Force, Navy, and Army relative to the growing technological threat from adversaries. Detonations, a shock-coupled reaction, provide the key to high energy release for DoD hypersonic and space propulsion for missiles, rockets, and aircraft engines. Detonations travel at hypersonic speeds, five times the speed of sound and above 2 km-s (4,500 miles per hour) therefore a high-speed reactant mixture is needed to stabilize the detonation. The proposed test article experimental equipment is critically needed for a hypersonic flight program to establish the fundamental limits of detonation physics and explore the stability and dynamics of oblique detonation waves. The flight experimental equipment is critically needed for longer test time, larger test article scale, and augmented instrumentations to provide the structure and dynamics details of standing oblique detonation wave in hypersonic flight regime and conditions that are not available in ground test facilities. The primary objective of the proposed project is to develop and prepare a flight experiment article with key measurements (pressure, temperature, species, boundary layer, etc.) for further exploring detonation-based hypersonic engines. The flight experimental results will form the 6.1 foundation (basic understanding, model validation, calibration database, etc.) for hypersonic detonation engines. This understanding is critical and timely to accelerate the understanding and control.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Feb 06, 2025
- Source ID
- FA95502510077
Entities
People
- Kareem Ahmed
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- United States Air Force
- University of Central Florida Board of Trustees