Experimental investigation of the electromagnetic effect on a shock layer around a blunt body in a weakly ionized flow

Abstract

A reentry vehicle is exposed to a partially ionized flow during the reentry flight. For such a flight, a strong magnet mounted on the vehicle, which generates the magnetic field around the vehicle, is suggested to affect a surrounding ionized flow and make it possible to control the flow. Such an electromagnetic effect on the flow is investigated experimentally by using a small arc-jet wind tunnel. In the experiment, the translational temperature distribution in the shock layer around a magnetized blunt body in a supersonic, weakly ionized, argon flow is determined by applying an absorption spectroscopic technique. For the absorption spectrum affected by the magnetic field, the temperature determination method was newly developed. The temperature distribution thus determined for the shock layer shows that the applied magnetic field significantly affects the shock layer or, specifically, the shock standoff distance and enhances it.