Flow characteristics in the water-cooled channel of the MHD accelerator

Abstract

Many problems related with the development of a hypersonic vehicle and development of new thermal protection materials are directly related to the possibility of conducting a wide range of laboratory researches under conditions that are close to the real flight conditions as possible. In this connection, the work on the formation of high-enthalpy and high-speed gas flows in ground-based installations is of special importance. It is shown in this paper that the flow characteristics required can be achieved using the experimental setup with a magnetohydrodynamic accelerator after its updating. The feature of this research facility is that more than half of the electric energy supplied from electric circuit is converted directly into the kinetic energy of the flow. Preliminary analytical and experimental studies of the MHD accelerator with a water-cooled channel allow one to conclude that a hypersonic flow with duration up to 10 s is formed at the SMGDU path. The total enthalpy in the core of the flow is close to 20 MJ/kg, while a required high level of total pressure is being maintained. The facility with such flow parameters becomes unique and allows one to significantly expand the range of ground-based testing, for example, testing of thermal protection systems, and testing of novel contactless flow control methods for hypersonic flight conditions.