Engineering Notes: Hypersonic Flowfield Analysis of X-33 Model with the Electric Discharge Method

摘要

THE flowfield around a model of an X-33 test vehicle has been investigated utilizing the electric discharge method. The elec- tric discharge method has been developed for visualizing almost all important hypersonic flowfield phenomena, such as three- dimensional shock shapes,~1,2 streamlines near the wall surface,~3 streamlines away from the wall surface,~4 three-dimensional temper- ature fields,~5 and boundary layers.~3 The electric discharge method can also be used to visualize more complicated hypersonic flow- field phenomena, such as the shock/shock interaction, and shock- wave/boundary-layer interaction.~3,6