Thermoacoustic testing on thermal protection systems

Abstract

The IABG has designed and built a thermoacoustic facility capable of producing surface temperatures up to 1300<th>°C at sound pressure levels up to 160 dB. The purpose of this facility is to simulate aerothermal environments as encountered during the mission of space planes. The thermal protection systems (TPSs) of space planes are very susceptible to fatigue under these environments and therefore need extensive qualification testing before being used in operational missions. After reviewing the design aspects of the facility with a description of the selected components, a number of typical applications are presented such as tests in a progressive wave tube as well as tests in a reverberation chamber. In both cases difficulties arise in measuring the dynamic pressures acting on the test specimens under the extreme thermal environment. The paper therefore includes a discussion of possible measuring techniques for temperature and vibration control.