Electron Beam Density Probe for Measurements in Rarefied Gas Flows

摘要

It is the purpose of this report to describe an instrument for the determination of densities in rarefied gas streams which utilizes the attenuation of an electron beam. The electron beam in passage through a rarefied gas becomes scattered in a number of elastic and inelastic processes, and decays to a fraction of its initial intensity in the distance of a few electron mean free paths. Where the optical aperture of the detector is suitably small, the familiar linear absorption law applies. The mass absorption coefficient in this case is higher and more favorable for work at the lowest test section densities than in other absorption techniques investigated to the present. The instrument was used in an investigation of air flows about a sphere and a wedge, and in the undisturbed stream. The flow was maintained constant for all portions of the test at Mach 1.95, Re/in. ∼200, test section static pressure ∼80 μ Hg. Plots of the original and the reduced data show adequate internal consistency and a qualitative conformity with expected configurations.