Experimental surface heat flux measurement in hypervelocity flows

Prediction of heat transfer is integral to development of hypersonic vehicles. Underprediction of heat transfer rates can result in catastrophic failures during flight testing. An example which illustrates the importance of heat transfer during hypersonic flight is the destruction of the space shuttle Columbia during the re-entry portion of STS-107. The shuttle experienced damage to its heat shielding, which in turn was not able to protect the craft from the extremely high levels of heat transfer experience during re-entry, resulting in the destruction of the craft. Due to both the high costs and dangers associated with flight testing, ground based experimental heat transfer data is essential the the design of safe and efficient hypersonic craft. Experimental data in facilities which have the ability to create mid to high enthalpy flowfields without large amounts of freestream dissociation is highly desirable in order to both validate CFD codes and to determine the effects of variations in geometry on heat transfer. The Hypervelocity Expansion Tube (HET) is one of a few facilities in the US that are able to create these flows, and thus it is an optimal test bed for these types of studies. Two gage types used in order to measure surface heat transfer, thermocouples and thin film gages. This thesis details the development and application of thermocouples and thin film surface heat transfer gages in the HET. These gages have been extensively used in other hypersonic facilities, but their application and comparison in intermediate enthalpy conditions (like those created in the HET) has not been well established in previous reports. This study sought to compare the performance of the gages and to apply them to canonical model geometries to investigate heat transfer in the HET.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.S.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Aerospace Engineering

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2010

Author dc:creator

• Flaherty, William P.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Austin, Joanna M.

• Hypersonics
• Compressible flow
• Heat Transfer

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2010 William P Flaherty

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/16142

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/16142