An Experimental Investigation of Hypersonic Stagnation Temperature Probes

Author: Wood, Richard Donald

Year: 1959

Degree: Engineer's thesis

Advisors: Lees, Lester; Kendall, James M.

Committee Member: Unknown, Unknown

Option: Aeronautics

DOI: 10.7907/KXK1-JQ18

Abstract

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

An experimental investigation of single-shielded hypersonic stagnation temperature probes was conducted in the GALCIT Leg No.1 hypersonic wind tunnel and in the Jet Propulsion Laboratory 12-inch supersonic wind tunnel.

By the combined use of both shield and base heating, a probe recovery factor of r = 1.0 was obtained over a range of Reynolds numbers at M [...] = 5.75. By using the experimental data and simple heat balance equations, the probe losses, for the conditions investigated, were found to be in the proportion: shield conduction loss - 15; base conduction loss - 3; thermocouple conduction loss - 1; thermocouple radiation loss - 3/100. The typical decrease in probe recovery factor observed for decreasing Reynolds number appears to be related to a decrease in the base temperature and not to the wire conduction loss as commonly assumed.

An optimum probe vent to entrance area ratio of [...] was found and is shown to be a function of the number of vent holes used in the shield.

No single calibration parameter was found that could relate the experimental recovery factors under all conditions.

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