An experimental investigation of heat transfer rates on a blunt body in hypersonic flow

Abstract

An experimental investigation was made in the GALCIT hypersonic wind tunnel, leg number 1, at a nominal Mach number of 5.8 to determine the heat transfer rate and temperature distributions on a water-cooled, ellipsoid-cone at angles of yaw of 0, 4 and 8 degrees, respectively. The Reynolds number per inch based on free stream conditions was [...]. The experimental means employed was a steady-state technique developed by Mr. F. W. Hartwig at GALCIT during the past several years. This technique utilizes a heat transducer or heat meter of very small size. The primary advantage of this method is that it obviates the necessity of correcting for axial temperature gradients in the model. Surface pressure distributions were also studied on a model of identical geometry for angles of yaw of 0, 4, 8 and 12 degrees, respectively. The primary interest here was to obtain data necessary for the theoretical calculation of the heat transfer rate distributions using laminar flow theory. The investigation showed that the heat meters were very reliable. The data obtained from independent wind tunnel runs were repeatable within [plus or minus] 1.5 per cent. It was found that the local heat transfer rate and the local pressure coefficient vary linearly with angle of yaw. The agreement of the experimentally determined stagnation heat transfer rate and the theoretically calculated one was good. Further refinement of the calibration technique appears to be the logical direction of effort for subsequent investigators.