Novel Luminescent Temperature Sensor for Internal Temperature Measurement of Ablating Objects in High-Speed Flows

Abstract

A novel luminescent sensor based on a system using the luminophore pyranine in water ice was created. The sensor is ideal for measuring the temperature field internal to an aerodynamic object, and can be used to study ablation and phase change. The sensor exhibits a sensitivity of -9.2%/K, and allows for spatially and temporally resolved measurements of the temperature field within water ice. The luminescent sensor is self-referencing and ablates with surrounding ice, making it one of the only tools capable of measuring spatially resolved internal temperature fields at high temperatures. It can be used to validate computational models for heat transfer on ablating bodies in high-speed flows. A half-cylinder model was created and placed into Mach 2 flow with a stagnation temperature of 700K. The internal temperature field and the amount of ablated material was captured using the novel luminescent sensor. Results agree with qualitative and quantitative predictions for heat transfer in blunt bodies in supersonic flows.