Superorbital expansion tube tests of a caret waverider

Abstract

A computational and experimental study was conducted to assess the potential of testing waverider configurations in a high-performance, short-duration expansion tube facility. The tests were performed in the newly commissioned X3 superorbital expansion tube and provide the first experimental data of a waverider tested at a stagnation enthalpy and equivalent flight speed exceeding 40 MJ/kg and 9 km/s, respectively. Two simple caret configurations were chosen as benchmark test cases to test the use of the facility, instrumentation and numerical models to investigate these flows. The general performance of the sharp and blunt leading edge waveriders at angles of attack ranging from 0 degrees to 5 degrees were analyzed and compared to CFD and theoretical predictions. For the conditions tested, the presence of a strong viscous interaction caused the shock wave to be detached from the leading edge of the models resulting in a significant loss in performance. An analytical model was developed to account for the strong coupling between the shock wave and boundary layer. Results were shown to be in very good agreement with CFD estimates for both configurations at all angles of attack considered. Finite-rate chemistry CFD simulations indicated that real gas effects other than the residual levels of nonequilibrium freestream dissociation present in the expansion tube flow were negligible for the conditions tested. The study also revealed that a past flow visualization technique gave a false indication of the leading edge shock location. An improved experimental visualization technique was successfully tested with results from these tests correlating well with computational estimates. This study successfully demonstrated the use of the facility to study waverider performance at speeds representative of orbital flight.