Adiabatic wall temperature in the supersonic flow of moist air with spontaneous condensation

Abstract

The expansion of moist air in supersonic nozzles is accompanied by spontaneous condensation of water vapor due to a sharp decrease in flow temperature and pressure. However, in the near-wall boundary layer due to the viscous dissipation, moist air temperature decreases slightly in comparison with initial one. This leads to the fact that the vapor remains overheated in the near-wall region and condensation does not spread to its entire depth. Droplets formed in the core flow as a result of condensation can penetrate into the near-wall region due to turbulent diffusion and evaporate due to higher temperature in the near-wall region. This process causes cooling of the near-wall gas layers and, consequently, a decrease in the adiabatic wall temperature. A decrease in the adiabatic wall temperature relative to the stagnation temperature leads to a decrease in aerodynamic heating and, consequently, in the heat flux from the gas to the body. In this paper, measurements of the adiabatic temperature of the supersonic nozzle wall for moist air flow with condensation are presented. Temperature measurements were made using an infrared thermal imager. Initial moisture content varied in the range of 1.5–20.2 g/(kg. dry air) and initial relative humidity in the range 20–90%. It is shown that in the region behind the zone of spontaneous condensation (“condensation shock”), adiabatic wall temperature depends on the initial moisture content and can be either greater or less than the value of a single-phase (dry air) flow with identical initial flow parameters. Estimates of the flow parameters behind the condensation region are obtained using one-dimensional diabatic flow equations and experimental static pressure distributions along the nozzle length. The correlation between the initial moisture content, the average droplet size and the temperature recovery factor is shown.