Characterization Of UTA Hypersonic Shock Tunnel

Abstract

Characterization of a hypersonic shock tunnel was performed under low enthalpy conditions. A rake was designed and fabricated to measure pitot pressure and heat flux at three axial locations in the test section. Pitot pressures at three locations provided an indication of the inviscid core. Thin film RTD sensors with a fast response time were fabricated to measure the heat flux under these low enthalpy conditions. The Cook-Felderman algorithm was used to estimate the heat flux from the temperature history. Results for the first millisecond of test time showed a probe tip surface temperature increase of 15-20 K and a calculated heat flux in the inviscid core of 9.93 ± 0.56 W/cm2.