Hypersonic engine component experiments in a high heat flux supersonic flow environment

摘要

The major concern in advancing the state-of-the-art technologies for hypersonic vehicles is the development of an aeropropulsion system capable of withstanding the sustained high thermal loads expected during hypersonic flight. Even though progress has been made in the computational understanding of fluid dynamics and the physics/chemistry of high speed flight, there is also a need for experimental facilities capable of providing a high heat flux environment for testing component concepts and verifying/calibrating these analyses. A hydrogen/oxygen rocket engine heat source has been developed at the NASA Lewis Research Center that is capable of providing heat fluxes up to 450 W/cm$+2$/ on flat surfaces and up to 5,000 W/cm$+2$/ at the leading edge stagnation point of a strut in a supersonic flow stream. Gas temperatures up to 3050 K can also be attained. Two recent experimental programs conducted in this facility are discussed.