An Experimental Investigation of Hypersonic Flow over Blunt-Nosed Bodies at a Mach Number 5.8

Author: Fraasa, Donald Gordon

Year: 1957

Degree: Engineer's thesis

Advisor: Lees, Lester

Committee Member: Unknown, Unknown

Option: Aeronautics

DOI: 10.7907/G6D1-N841

Abstract

NOTE: Text or symbols not renderable in plain ASCII are indicated by [...]. Abstract is included in .pdf document.

An experimental investigation to obtain schlieren photographs of the flow over several blunt-nosed bodies and to determine the surface static pressure distribution on certain of these models was conducted in the GALCIT hypersonic wind tunnel, leg no. 1, at a nominal Mach number of 5.8 and a free stream Reynolds number per inch of 2.22 x 10[...].

Schlieren photographs were made of the following blunt-nosed models, all with cylindrical afterbodies, at angles of yaw of 0, 4, and 8 degrees: a family of nine round-nosed bodies with nose radii of curvature varying from the radius of the afterbody cylinder (hemispherical nose) to infinity (flat nose), two concave-nosed bodies having nose radii of curvature equal to 0.8 and 1.6 times the afterbody diameter, and three flat-nosed cylinders with rounded shoulders whose radii of curvature were .083, .125, and .208 times the afterbody diameter.

Static pressure distributions at angles of yaw of 0, 4, and 8 degrees were determined for three of the blunt bodies: (1) the flatnosed cylinder with infinite nose radius of curvature, (2) the flatnosed cylinder with a rounded shoulder of radius equal to .208 of the afterbody diameter, and (3) a round-nosed cylinder with nose radius of curvature equal to 1.3 times the afterbody diameter.

The schlieren photographs were analyzed on a contour projector to measure shock standoff distances, to determine the sonic point on the shock, and to observe shock shape. Data derived from these studies and the pressure distributions are presented in graphical form. Comparisons are made between the experimental results and appropriate theoretical approximations for hypersonic flow.

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