Experimental Investigations on a Free-Flying Supersonic Projectile Model Submitted to an Electric Discharge Generating Plasma

Abstract

Many experiments have been carried out in a shock-tunnel facility of ISL in order to investigate the free-flight motion of a supersonic projectile model submitted to an electric discharge. The experiments have been done at a Mach number of 4.5 under realistic conditions present at 2.5-km altitude. The electric discharge is provided by a low-voltage actuator located outside the shock tunnel for dimension reasons. The tridimensional displacement of the model is visualized during its free-flight by the shadowgraphy technique and it is recorded by a high-speed camera. The displacement analysis leads to the evaluation of the angle of attack of the projectile model after the visualization duration. The lateral resulting force is also evaluated from the model displacement.