Superorbital Entry Heat Transfer Including Atomic Line Radiation and Massive Blowing

Author: Dirling, Raymond Benedict

Year: 1968

Degree: Engineer's thesis

Advisor: Lees, Lester

Committee Member: Unknown, Unknown

Option: Aeronautics

DOI: 10.7907/C3KT-S738

Abstract

At superorbital reentry velocities radiative heating is the dominant mode of heat transfer to the stagnation region of blunt reentry vehicles. The radiative heat transfer rate at the wall is determined by the temperature profile through the shock layer which depends on the net radiative transport through both the viscous inner region adjacent to the wall and the outer region where convection and radiative transport processes dominate the energy transfer. When atomic line transitions are included a very small scale length for radiant energy transport is introduced which results in characteristic changes in the shock layer flow. The inclusion of atomic line transitions necessitates consideration of self-absorption of radiant energy and results in the coupling of radiant energy transport and convection and conduction transport processes even for relatively small vehicle nose radii.

In the formulation of this problem no restrictions are placed on the variation of the absorption coefficient of the medium with wavelength. As an illustrative example the effects of nose radius, wall reflectivity, and massive blowing have been computed for the shock layer flow field of a spherically blunted vehicle at 50,000 feet per second and 200,000 foot altitude in air.

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