Modern technologies for creating systems of optical and physical measurements of gas-dynamic fields with sizes up to 1000 mm

Abstract

Basic technologies used to develop shadowgraphs, interference devices, and schlieren systems of the first and second generations failed to solve some problems of modern gas-dynamic experiments, first of all, creation of comparatively inexpensive and compact systems for optical and physical measurements of gas-dynamic fields (visualization fields) with sizes of 800–1000 mm and more. The demand for unique optical systems for wind tunnels and ballistic ranges is expected to increase in the near future: it is only these tools that can ensure adequate experimental investigations of flows around airplane, helicopter, future flying vehicle, car, and missile models whose scales are close to real ones. (In wind tunnels, the gas flow impinges onto a motionless model, e.g., of a flying vehicle; aeroballistic ranges allow direct modeling of the motion of examined bodies.) New capabilities of optical methods of gas flow research are implemented: a posteriori investigation of wave fields deformed after passing through the gas flow, increasing the sensitivity of optical measurements by one or two orders of magnitude, and manyfold increase in the amount of information obtained in a complex gas-dynamic experiment. Advanced optical technologies are used to solve these problems.