Aero-optical Effects Research Articles

Research progress on aero-optical effects of hypersonic optical window with film cooling

AbstractIn recent years, the demand for optical imaging and detection in hypersonic aircraft has been on the rise. The high-temperature and high-pressure compressed flow field near airborne optoelectronic devices creates significant interference with light transmission, known as hypersonic aero-optical effects. This effect has emerged as a key technological challenge, limiting hypersonic optical imaging and detection capabilities. This article focuses on introducing the thermal effects and optical transmission effects of hypersonic aero-optical effects, as along with corresponding suppression techniques. In addition, this article critically reviews and succinctly summarizes the advancements made in hypersonic aero-optical effects testing technology, while also delineating avenues for future research needs in this field. In conclusion, there is an urgent call for further exploration into the study of aero-optical effects under conditions characterized by high Mach, high enthalpy, and high Reynolds number in the future.

Influence of exposure time on the aero-optical effects of a high-speed aircraft optical window

Under high-speed conditions (Mach number > 3), the turbulent shear layer formed on the optical window causes phase changes in the light, resulting in the aero-optical effects, which significantly affect the imaging quality at different exposure times, τ. In this study, imaging data of an optical window were collected in a Mach 3.8 supersonic low-noise wind tunnel for a facula and a USAF 1951 resolution board, as well as distorted wavefront data of visible light. As τ increases from 0.2 ms to 5 ms, the centroid jitter of the facula shows an overall decreasing trend and the increase of τ mainly inhibits the jitter in the spanwise direction. While τ varies from 0.2 ms to 28 ms, structural analysis indicated that the structural similarity and stability of imaging improves and this improvement has an upper limit of τ0 = 22 ms, coined as the saturation exposure time. Normalized modulation transfer function curves derived from USAF 1951 images show a decrease in the imaging resolution as τ increases. The average wavefront distortion can be reduced by up to 71.7% as τ increases from 5 ms to 30 ms, while the standard deviation of wavefront distortion initially decreases and then stabilizes at 0.0025λ.

Aero-optical effects, part II. Sources of aberrations: tutorial

This paper serves as part II of a two-part tutorial on “aero-optical effects.” In part I, we provide introductory material with an emphasis on system-level considerations, particularly for those who are new to the field of aero-optics. In part II, we move on to survey several sources of aberrations. For example, we cover foundational sources like boundary layers and shear layers, as well as miscellaneous sources like mechanical contamination, shock waves, and aero acoustics. Throughout part II, we emphasize drivers for system-level performance, which appropriately builds on the system-level considerations covered in part I. This emphasis will inform future efforts looking to develop airborne-laser systems flying at subsonic, supersonic, and hypersonic speeds.

Aero-optical effects, part I. System-level considerations: tutorial

This paper serves as part I of a two-part tutorial on “aero-optical effects.” We first present background information to assist with our introduction of the topic. Next, we use the aerodynamic environment associated with a hemisphere-on-cylinder beam director to decompose the resulting aberrations (that arise due to aero-optical effects) in terms of piston, tilt, and higher-order phase errors. We also discuss the performance implications that these phase errors have on airborne-laser systems. Recognizing the complexity of these environments, we then discuss how one measures these phase errors using standard wavefront-sensing approaches and the impact these phase errors have on imaging performance. These system-level considerations provide the material needed to survey several sources of aberrations such as boundary layers and shear layers, as well as mechanical contamination, shock waves, and aero-acoustics—all of which we cover in part II of this two-part tutorial.

Aero-optical effects of a hypersonic vehicle based on the refractive index step ray tracing method

The aero-optical effect caused by the high-speed flight of aircraft can affect the accuracy of astronomical navigation, so studying the laser transmission characteristics in high-speed flow fields is essential. This study adopts a 3D spherical blunt cone model as the physical aircraft model, incorporates the latest reanalysis data from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction as atmospheric parameters, and uses Fluent software to establish a hypersonic aircraft external flow field model. The ray tracing error is calculated using a method based on the refractive index step size. Results indicate that, under the conditions of flying altitude of 5 km and incident angle of 45°, the proposed ray tracing method has better accuracy than the traditional method. Compared with the Runge–Kutta method and the method based on geometric step size, the proposed ray tracing method reduces the error by 46.4% and 12.5%, respectively, at the flight Mach number of 5.

Correction of Aero-Optical Effect with Blow–Suction Control for Hypersonic Vehicles

High-speed turbulence induces significant aero-optical effects that severely disrupt the functionality of imaging systems of hypersonic vehicles. In this study, the aero-optical correction of various jet cooling modes is investigated using a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD)-like seeker model and the imaging impact of high-speed flow field and flow control on the optical window is analyzed by the Delayed Detached Eddy Simulation (DDES) method. The findings reveal that a jet mode parallel to the window exhibits better cooling effectiveness compared to a perpendicular jet mode along the body axis; however, it introduces additional wavefront distortion, leading to degraded imaging quality. Although micro-vortex generators (MVGs) can reduce density fluctuations near the window from a refractive index perspective, they do not effectively mitigate wavefront distortion or improve window cooling efficiency. Finally, incorporating suction control, a comprehensive flow control solution, significantly improves the flow field structure near the window, resulting in a more uniform temperature distribution and reduced wavefront distortion. Applying this flow control method results in a 14.7% reduction in wavefront distortion at 3 Ma and an approximately 20% maximum value reduction at 5 Ma. This study proposes a novel and comprehensive flow control method to effectively mitigate the aero-optical effect in hypersonic flows, providing a new avenue for subsequent researchers in this field.

Modified compressible turbulence phase distortion formula and compressible turbulence spectrum simulation

In order to better study the imaging characteristics of high-speed moving targets in atmospheric turbulence, it is necessary to solve the optical distortion caused by aerodynamic optical effects, and the optical distortion needs to be described by compressible turbulence spectrum. In order to better understand the spectral characteristics of aero-optical distortion, according to the Maxwell equation, the Boltzmann factor equation is introduced based on the existing compressible turbulence spectrum theory, and the analytical expression of the modified compressible turbulence spectrum is derived and verified. Then, based on the freezing theory, the compressible turbulence spectrum is simulated by the phase screen method of power spectrum inversion. The influence of the distance from the moving target wall and turbulence intensity on the compressible turbulence phase screen is simulated and analyzed. Compared with atmospheric turbulence, it is found that the intensity of turbulence is proportional to the compressible turbulence, but the compressible turbulence is also inversely proportional to the distance of the moving target wall. As the distance from the moving target wall decreases, the phase fluctuation of the compressible turbulence is larger, which also indicates that the aero-optical effect mainly occurs in the boundary layer annex of the moving target, and the nearer the target, the aero-optical effect becomes more serious.

Time characteristics of aero-optical imaging degeneration of the ellipsoidal dome under variable operating conditions

As a missile flies at high speed, the index and surface shape of the conformal dome will vary under the influence of the aero-optical effect, which will degenerate the performance of the seeker’s imaging detection system. However, many previous studies on aero-optical imaging deterioration of optical domes were usually carried out under fixed operating conditions, which are not in line with the real flight scene of the missile. In addition, the aero-optical imaging degeneration of the dome is diverse as the flight time increases. Therefore, it is of great significance to study the time characteristics of aero-optical imaging degradation of optical domes under variable work conditions. In this study, taking an air-to-air missile as an example, the Zernike polynomials, wavefront aberration, Strehl ratio, and image simulation are applied to evaluate the aero-optical imaging deterioration of an ellipsoidal dome in the flight time range of 0–10 s under variable working conditions. The simulation results show that, as the flight time increases, (1) the dynamic range of tilt, defocus, astigmatism, coma, and wavefront aberration increase; and (2) the Strehl ratio and the peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) of the simulated images decrease. Therefore, the influence of flight time on the aero-optical image degradation of the ellipsoidal dome gradually becomes more serious.

Influence of Aero-Optical Effect on Laser Communication of Aircraft Platforms

Influence of Aero-Optical Effect on Laser Communication of Aircraft Platforms

Experimental investigation on the aero-optical effects of supersonic gas films with various cooling fluids.

Despite the fact that a supersonic cooling gas film can efficiently insulate aerodynamic heating, its interaction with the mainstream generates a sophisticated flow structure which may cause significant aero-optical ramifications. This study aims to analyze the fluid structure and wavefront distortion of supersonic gas film when subjected to varying nozzle pressure ratios (NPR) by employing two distinct cooling refrigerants, namely C O 2 and air. Within the NPR range of 0 to 2, a linear relationship exists between the wavefront distortion of both C O 2 and air films, while the C O 2 film exhibits higher wavefront distortion than the air. Additionally, the influence of condensation on the discrepancies in aero-optical effects of the two refrigerants is discussed.

Numerical investigation of aero-optical effects around the turret based on delayed detached eddy simulation and unsteady Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes

Delayed Detached Eddy Simulation (DDES) and Unsteady Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (URANS), based on the two-equation Shear Stress Transport (SST) model, are implemented to investigate the flow features and the aero-optical distortions around the turret. The Mach number is Ma = 0.4 and the Reynolds number is Re = 1.43 × 106. Instantaneous and time-averaged flow fields are presented to compare the ability of DDES and URANS in predicting the flow features. The instantaneous results show that DDES can resolve the abundant flow structures and more disordered density distributions than URANS. The time-averaged pressure coefficient and the density distribution of both methods are generally similar, but the time-averaged turbulent kinetic energy of URANS is far higher than that of DDES. The time-averaged pressure coefficient of DDES is closer to experimental data. In the windward view, typical surface flow features of DDES and URANS are similar. In the leeward view, there are remarkable differences of typical flow features between DDES and URANS. At the six angles of elevation, 60°, 76°, 90°, 103°, 120°, and 132°, the spatial-temporal wavefront distortions are calculated and discussed with the geometric ray-tracing method and the Zernike polynomial fitting, respectively. In spatial distribution, the wavefront distortions of DDES and URANS are slightly different from the experimental data. At the angles of 60°, 76°, 90°, and 103°, the tendencies of wavefront distortion of DDES at different tracing distances are the same with that of URANS, which is due to the same ability of two methods to resolve the density distributions in the attached flow region. However, the results of DDES agree well with the experimental results at the angles of 120° and 132°, which is bigger than the results of URANS. For temporal characteristics, the frequencies of wavefront distortions of DDES are obviously higher than that of URANS. The amplitudes of wavefront distortions by DDES are about 3 to 5 times higher than that by URANS. At the cases of two different FLHs at Ma = 0.4, the flow structures are totally similar, and the tendencies of wavefront distortion with θ are also similar. At the cases of three Mach number, the compression has a big influence on the wavefront distortion.

Optical performance evaluation of an infrared system of a hypersonic vehicle in an aero-thermal environment.

At hypersonic velocities, the turbulent flow field generated by an aircraft, along with its temperature distribution, leads to significant aerodynamic optical effects that severely impede the performance of internal optical systems. This study proposes a method for analyzing the temporal characteristics of imaging degradation in a detector window infrared imaging system under different field angles of hypersonic velocity. Based on heat transfer theory, a method for solving the transient temperature field in the optical window of a high-speed aircraft is derived and established, considering unsteady thermal conduction-radiation coupling. Additionally, an optical window radiation tracing method is introduced, which directly determines the initial direction vector of light reaching the detector. This method reduces the workload of radiation transmission, significantly enhancing the efficiency of radiation calculations. The time characteristics of image degradation caused by aero-optical effects in high-speed aircraft are analyzed using metrics such as peak signal-to-noise ratio, wave aberration, and point diffusion function. The results demonstrate that as working time increases and the viewing angle widens, the impact of aero-optics on the aircraft imaging system becomes more severe. Moreover, compared to the aerodynamic light transmission effect, the aerodynamic thermal radiation effect has a more detrimental influence on imaging quality.

Seeker head geometric parameters influence on the hypersonic aero-optical effect.

The aero-optical effect of hypersonic flight vehicles creates serious distortion on the imaging system. In this paper, based on the 2D model of a typical optical seeker, flow field density data are obtained by numerical simulation with different optical seeker head radii, cone angles, and relative positions of incident rays reaching the window as variables. Through a series of evaluation parameters, the aero-optical effect under different conditions is quantitatively computed by a ray tracing method. The results show that with the increase of the line of sight (LOS) angle, image deviation decreases. When the optical seeker radius is 40mm and the cone angle is more than 20°, image deviation will not change with the increase of the cone angle. In the case of a small cone angle, the bore sight error (BSE) decreases gradually with the increase of LOS angle. The BSE decreases with the increase of the cone angle, and tends to be stable when the cone angle is above 40°. The variation of the optical path difference with respect to the flow field density is more sensitive than the distance from the shock wave region to the optical seeker window. The Strehl ratio decreases with the increase of the optical seeker cone angle, indicating that the larger the cone angle, the worse the imaging quality.

Influence of optical aperture sizes on aero-optical effects induced by supersonic turbulent boundary layers.

With the increase of flight speed, aero-optical effects induced by the turbulent boundary layer near the optical window become increasingly significant. The density field of the supersonic (Mach 3.0) turbulent boundary layer (SPTBL) was measured by nano-tracer-based planar laser scattering technique, and the optical path difference (OPD) was obtained through ray-tracing method. The influence of the optical aperture size on the aero-optical effects of SPTBL was studied in detail, and the underlying mechanisms were analyzed from the perspective of the turbulent structure scales. The influence of the optical aperture on the aero-optical effects is mainly due to turbulent structures with different scales. The beam center jitter (s x¯) and offset (x¯) are mainly caused by turbulent structures larger than the optical aperture size, while the beam spread about the center (x ' 2¯) is mainly caused by turbulent structures smaller than the optical aperture size. With the increase of optical aperture size, the proportion of turbulent structures larger than the optical aperture size decreases, which can suppress the beam jitter and the beam offset. Meanwhile, since the beam spread is primarily induced by small-scale turbulent structures with relatively strong density fluctuation intensity, the spread increases rapidly to its peak and then gradually stabilizes as the optical aperture size grows.

Numerical Investigation of the Influences of the Features of Transonic Flow over a Hemispherical Turret on Beam Wavefront Distortions

Complex features of transonic flow over a turret make it challenging to use passive flow control to reduce aero-optical effects. In this study, the influence of different flow features on wavefront distortions is numerically investigated through improved delayed detached eddy simulation coupled with a modified sub-grid scale. The proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) method is used to study the spatiotemporal characteristics of the flow features. The flow field changes in the wake along with the motion of the shock. Two features, namely, lateral shift (dominant in modes 1 and 2) and wall-normal fluctuation (dominant in modes 3 and 4) of the wake, are the most dominant in the flow field. All beams share the common feature of transmitting the flow field, in which a large component of optical path difference (OPD) appears at St=0.35, indicating the high impact of wall-normal fluctuation on the distortion of the wavefront. After the different POD modes, which contain 30% of the mode energy, are removed, all beams transmitted through different reconstructed fields show very different features for OPD. The flow features that do not exhibit higher-order modes from modes 21 to 92 affect the OPD slightly, as the OPD components in the low-St region are almost unchanged. With the removal of modes from 3 to 32, wavefront distortions are considerably reduced, particularly at St=0.35. The wavefront distortions are most reduced after the lower order modes from 1 to 20 are removed, as the components of OPD in the low-St region are dramatically reduced. The significant relations between OPD and the flow features reveal that controlling the dominant flow features has significant potential for reducing aero-optical effects.

Influence of Ablation Deformation on Aero-Optical Effects in Hypersonic Vehicles

High-speed turbulence is generated when hypersonic vehicles fly in the atmosphere, which can create aero-optical effects and interfere with optical navigation and guidance systems. At the same time, the front end and optical window of hypersonic vehicles are exposed to an aerodynamic heating environment, leading to the head ablation and thermal deformation of the optical window. This further aggravates the turbulent transition process and makes the error of the aero-optical effects more difficult to predict. In this paper, the aero-optical effects under the condition of high-temperature ablation were analyzed. Ablation deformation models of both the head and optical window were established. Then, a high-speed flow field was simulated under different flight conditions. The distortion characteristics of the aero-optical effects were obtained through the photon transmission theory. The simulation results show that the ablation deformation of hypersonic vehicles under an aerodynamic heating environment aggravates the disturbance error of the aero-optical effects. Moreover, with the increase in the flight speed and the decrease in the flight altitude, the ablation deformation of the hypersonic vehicles and the aero-optical effects distortion both gradually increase. The research in this paper provides a reference for the prediction of aero-optical distortion in an aerothermal environment.

An Aero-Optical Effect Analysis Method in Hypersonic Turbulence Based on Photon Monte Carlo Simulation

Aero-optical effects caused by hypersonic turbulence will affect the accuracy of optical sensors on aircraft. Traditional analysis methods, which do not consider absorption and scattering effects, cannot easily be used to completely describe the transmission process of light in hypersonic turbulence. In this paper, an aero-optical effect analysis method based on photon Monte Carlo simulation (MC-AOEA) was proposed to explain the distortion characteristics of aero-optical effects from the perspective of photon statistics. The energy distribution of photons in the transmission process was determined by taking a photon packet as a unit, and the microscopic statistics of the photon dissipation energy for all photon packets were calculated. The effectiveness of this method was verified by comparing the photon statistical parameters with the traditional optical distortion physical quantities. MC-AOEA was used to analyze the distortion of aero-optical effects at different altitudes and speeds. Additionally, the simulation results showed that, with the reduction in flight altitude and the enhancement of speed, the distortion of aero-optical effects was aggravated, and the energy loss was more serious, which provides a reference for the evaluation of aero-optical effect errors.

A Quick Simulation Method for Aero-Optical Effects Based on a Density Proxy Model.

Aero-optical effects caused by high-speed flow fields will interfere with the transmission of starlight, reduce the accuracy of optical sensors, and affect the application of celestial navigation on hypersonic vehicles. At present, the research of aero-optical effects relies heavily on the flow field simulation of computational fluid dynamics (CFD), which requires a great deal of computing resources and time, and cannot satisfy the demand of the rapid analysis of aero-optical effects in the engineering design stage. Therefore, a quick simulation method for aero-optical effects based on a density proxy model (DP-AOQS) is proposed in this paper. A proxy model of the turbulent density field is designed to replace the density field in the CFD simulation, and the proxy model is parametrically calibrated to simulate the optical characteristics of the turbulent boundary layer (TBL) in the external flow field of the optical window. The performance of DP-AOQS in the visible light band is verified from the perspectives of density field distribution, optical path difference (OPD), and fuzzy star map. The simulation results show that the method can quickly provide the distortion results of aero-optical effects in different flight conditions on the premise of ensuring the simulation accuracy. The research in this paper provides a new analytical method for the study of aero-optical effects.

Satellite-to-aircraft quantum key distribution performance estimation with boundary layer effects

Remarkable progress has been made in satellite-based quantum key distribution (QKD), which can effectively provide QKD service even at the intercontinental scale and construct an ultralong-distance global quantum network. But there are still some places where terrestrial fiber and ground stations cannot be constructed, like harsh mountainous areas and air space above the sea. So the airborne platform is expected to replace the ground station and provide flexible and relay links for the large-scale integrated communication network. However, the photon transmission rate would be randomly reduced, owing to the randomly distributed boundary layer that surrounds the surface of the aircraft when the flight speed is larger than 0.3 Ma. Previous research of airborne QKD with boundary layer effects is mainly under the air-to-ground scenario in which the aircraft is a transmitter, while the satellite-to-aircraft scenario is rarely reported. In this article, we propose a performance evaluation scheme of satellite-to-aircraft QKD with boundary layer effects in which the aircraft is the receiver. With common experimental settings, the boundary layer would introduce a ∼31 dB loss to the transmitted photons, decrease ∼47% of the quantum communication time, and decrease ∼51% of the secure key rate, which shows that the aero-optical effects caused by the boundary layer cannot be ignored. Our study can be performed in future airborne quantum communication designs.

Inhibition of the aero-optical effects of supersonic mixing layers based on the RVGAs’ control

Inhibition of the aero-optical effects of supersonic mixing layers based on the RVGAs’ control