Tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy using an external cavity diode laser operating in the infra-red has been developed to monitor CO2 in the freestream of the Longshot hypervelocity facility at the Von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics. The Longshot facility offers a unique European facility for ground testing and numerical validation applications, however, some of the traditional data rebuilding aspects are in question. A non-intrusive absorption<p>sensor could significantly aid in improving the knowledge of freestream static values thereby improving the models used in data rebuilding and numerical simulation. The design of such a sensor also expands the spectroscopic capabilities of the Von Karman Institute.<p><p>The absorption sensor is designed around the single P12 (00001)-(30013) rovibrational transition near 1.6µm (6218.09cm-1 specifically) which yields relatively weak direct absorption levels at about 3.5% per meter for typical Longshot freestream conditions. However, when handled carefully, adequate signal-to-noise can be acquired to exploit significant flow information. By being able to operate in this range, total sensor cost can be easily an a factor of two or more cheaper than sensors designed for the deeper infrared. All sensor elements were mounted to a compact portable optics bench utilizing single-mode optical fibers to allow for quick installation at different facilities by eliminating tedious optical realigning. Scans at 600Hz were performed over 20ms of the 40ms test time to extract core static temperature, pressure and velocity.<p><p>These results are compared with the current state of the Longshot data rebuild method. The non-uniform flow properties of the shear layer and test cabin rested gas accumulation was of an initial concern. The temperature and density gradients along with significant radial velocity components could result in DLAS temperature, pressure and velocity that are significantly different than that of the target freestream inviscid core values. Fortunately, with the proper selection of the P12 rotational number, this effect could be more or less ignored as the higher temperature and lower density gas of this region is relatively transparent.<p><p>Ultimately, acquired temperature and density were moderately accurate when compared to Longshot rebuilt results owing primarily to the baseline extraction which poses issues for such low absorption signals. However, the extracted velocity data are quite accurate. This is a definite puls for the sensor as the freestream enthalpy of cold hypersonic facilities is dictated primarily by the kinetic energy contribution. Being able to compare velocity gives insight to the level of vibration non-equilibrium in the flow. The velocity of the DLAS and the Longshot rebuild are quite close. This adds more weight to the argument that vibrational excitation is very low (if present at all) in the free stream and that the van de derWaals equation of state usage and constant specific heat assumption might be an adequate model for the data rebuild after all. / Doctorat en Sciences de l'ingénieur / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Laminar turbulent transition is known for a long time as a critical phenomenon influencing the thermal load encountered by hypersonic vehicle during their planetary re-entry trajectory. Despite the efforts made by several research laboratories all over the world, the prediction of transition remains inaccurate, leading to oversized thermal protection system and dramatic limitations of hypersonic vehicles performances. One of the reasons explaining the difficulties encountered in predicting transition is the wide variety of parameters playing a role in the phenomenon. Among these parameters, surface roughness is known to play a major role and has been investigated in the present thesis.<p><p>A wide bibliographic review describing the main parameters affecting transition and their coupling is proposed. The most popular roughness-induced transition predictions correlations are presented, insisting on the lack of physics included in these methods and the difficulties encountered in performing ground hypersonic transition experiments representative of real flight characteristics. This bibliographic review shows the importance of a better understanding of the physical phenomenon and of a wider experimental database, including real flight data, for the development of accurate prediction methods.<p><p>Based on the above conclusions, a hypersonic experimental test campaign is realized for the characterization of the flow field structure in the vicinity and in the wake of 3D roughness elements. This fundamental flat plate study is associated with numerical simulations for supporting the interpretation of experimental results and thus a better understanding of transition physics. Finally, a model is proposed in agreement with the wind tunnel observations and the bibliographic survey.<p><p>The second principal axis of the present study is the development of a hypersonic in-flight roughness-induced transition experiment in the frame of the European EXPERT program. These flight data, together with various wind tunnel measurements are very important for the development of a wide experimental database supporting the elaboration of future transition prediction methods. / Doctorat en Sciences de l'ingénieur / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Les télescopes terrestres et spatiaux recueillent une énorme quantité d'informations dans le domaine infrarouge en provenance d'objets astrophysiques ''chauds'' (500-3000 K) tels que les atmosphères d'exoplanètes (Jupiters chauds), de naines brunes et les enveloppes circumstellaires d'étoiles AGBs. Cette thèse s'inscrit dans une approche d'astrophysique de laboratoire s'attachant à reproduire in situ certains aspects des conditions extrêmes rencontrées au sein de ce type d'environnements afin notamment de produire des données haute température de molécules clefs. Le nouveau dispositif mis en place à Rennes couple une Source Haute Enthalpie à un spectromètre par temps de déclin d'une cavité optique (CRDS). Le gaz étudié, chauffé dans le réservoir à une température avoisinant 2000 K, est expulsé dans une chambre basse pression au travers d'un injecteur circulaire. Le jet libre hypersonique ainsi formé est sondé en tout point et avec une très haute sensibilité. La simulation de nos écoulements stationnaires (CFD) associée à la modélisation du spectromètre a abouti à des spectres synthétiques en très bon accord avec les spectres expérimentaux. Ces données numériques ont été utilisées pour expliquer l'origine des profils de raie atypiques et plus généralement pour comprendre la structure des jets hypersoniques axisymétriques. Le cœur isentropique de ces écoulements est caractérisé par de fortes conditions hors équilibre. Une température de vibration très élevée (1350 K) et une température de rotation très basse (10 K) ont été obtenues à partir d’un jet de CO et d’argon. Ce découplage des degrés de liberté internes permet de simplifier la structure rotationnelle des spectres enregistrés et facilite l’étude des états vibrationnels excités des molécules en révélant la structure des bandes chaudes, absentes des bases de données spectroscopiques pour la plupart des molécules polyatomiques. Une approche complémentaire consiste à sonder la couche de choc produite par l'ajout d'un obstacle sur le trajet de l'écoulement. La température rotationnelle est brutalement élevée donnant ainsi accès aux transitions rotationnelles de hautes valeurs du nombre quantique J. Ces deux méthodes ont été appliquées avec succès au méthane qui joue un rôle majeur dans de nombreux environnements astrophysiques chauds. Enfin, outre la production de données spectroscopiques, ce dispositif expérimental a permis de mettre en évidence la relaxation des degrés de liberté internes du CO dans différents gaz porteurs (He et Ar) en suivant l’évolution des températures de rotation et vibration le long de l'écoulement hypersonique, aussi bien dans le cœur isentropique qu'au sein des couches limites. Ces températures sont comparées aux températures d'excitation obtenues par des méthodes ab initio afin de valider des calculs de taux de collision. Les données obtenues alimenteront à terme des bases de données, matière première au développement de codes de transfert radiatif permettant d'interpréter les observations en provenance des milieux astrophysiques ''chauds''. / A huge quantity of infrared spectra is collected by terrestrial and space telescopes from cool astrophysical objects (500-3000 K) like exoplanet (hot Jupiter) and brown dwarf atmospheres or circumstellar envelop of AGB stars. The main purpose of this thesis connected to experimental astrophysics is to provide high temperature data of key molecules by reproducing in the laboratory some aspects of such environments. A new setup built in Rennes couples a High Enthalpy Source to a highly sensitive Cavity Ring-Down Spectrometer. The gas studied, heated in the reservoir up to 2000 K, is expanded in a vacuum chamber through a circular nozzle and the resulting hypersonic jet can be probed at any location. Computational flow dynamics (CFD) calculations associated to a modeling of the infrared absorption lead to synthetic lines which are in very good agreement with the observed spectra. These numerical data were used to attribute the unusual double peak line shapes to the particular flow structure of axisymmetric hypersonic jets. Strong out-of-equilibrium conditions were evidenced in the isentropic core of the expansion. High vibrational temperature (1350 K) and rotational temperature lower than 10 K were recorded inside a jet of CO seeded in Ar. This degrees-of-freedom decoupling greatly simplifies the rotational structure of the recorded infrared spectra and unveils the presence of hot bands stemming from highly excited vibrational states which are significantly populated at high temperature. Our approach is therefore well suited for the study of rotationally cold hot bands of polyatomic molecules which are virtually missing in spectroscopic databases. A complementary approach consists in probing the shock layer formed upstream of an obstacle set perpendicularly to the hypersonic flow axis. Rotational temperature raises abruptly downstream the shock, revealing transitions associated with high J quantum numbers. These two methods were successfully applied to methane which plays an important role in numerous astrophysical environments. In addition to the acquisition of infrared spectroscopic data, the relaxation of internal degrees-of-freedom of CO seeded in different carrier gases (Ar and He) was studied by following the evolution of rotational and vibrational temperatures along the flow, in the isentropic core as well as in the peripheral viscous layers. These temperatures were compared to excitation temperatures calculated by an ab initio method in order to validate collision rates. These data will feed databases needed for the development of radiative transfer codes with a view to a better modeling of spectra observed from "hot" astrophysical environments.

Boundary-layer transition from a laminar to a turbulent regime is a critical driver in the design of high-speed vehicles. The aerothermodynamic loads associated with transitional or fully turbulent hypersonic boundary layers are several times higher than those associated with laminar flow. The presence of isolated roughness elements on the surface of a body can accelerate the growth of incoming disturbances and introduce additional instability mechanisms in the flow field, eventually leading to a premature occurrence of transition. This dissertation studies the instabilities induced by three-dimensional discrete roughness elements located inside a high-speed boundary layer developing on a flat plate. Two-dimensional local linear stability theory (2D-LST) is employed to identify the instabilities evolving in the three-dimensional flow field that characterizes the wake induced by the roughness elements and to investigate their evolution downstream. A formulation of the disturbance energy evolution equation available for base flows depending on a single spatial direction is generalized for the first time to base flows featuring two inhomogeneous directions and perturbations depending on three spatial directions. This generalization allows to obtain a decomposition of the temporal growth rate of 2D-LST instabilities into the different contributions that lead to the production and dissipation of the total disturbance energy. This novel extension of the formulation provides an additional layer of information for understanding the energy exchange mechanisms between a three-dimensional base flow and the perturbations resulting from 2D-LST. Stability computations for a calorically perfect gas illustrate that the wake induced by the roughness elements supports the growth of different sinuous and varicose instabilities which coexist together with the Mack-mode perturbations that evolve in the flat-plate boundary layer, and which become modulated by the roughness-element wake. A single pair of sinuous and varicose disturbances is found to dominate the wake instability in the vicinity of the obstacles. The application of the newly developed decomposition of the temporal growth rate reveals that the roughness-induced wake modes extract most of their potential energy from the transport of entropy fluctuations across the base-flow temperature gradients and most of their kinetic energy from the work of the disturbance Reynolds stresses against the base-flow velocity gradients. Further downstream, the growth rate of the wake instabilities is found to be influenced by the presence of Mack-mode disturbances developing on the flat plate. Strong evidence is observed of a continuous synchronization mechanism between the wake instabilities and the Mack-mode perturbations. This phenomenon leads to an enhancement of the amplification rate of the wake modes far downstream of the roughness element, ultimately increasing the associated integrated amplification factors for some of the investigated conditions. The effects of vibrational molecular excitation and chemical non-equilibrium on the instabilities induced by a roughness element are studied for the case of a high-temperature boundary layer developing on a sharp wedge configuration. For this purpose, a 2D-LST solver for chemical non-equilibrium flows is developed for the first time, featuring a fully consistent implementation of the thermal and transport models employed for the base flow and the perturbation fields. This is achieved thanks to the automatic derivation and implementation tool (ADIT) available within the von Karman Institute extensible stability and transition analysis (VESTA) tool-kit, which enables an automatic derivation and implementation of the 2D-LST governing equations for different thermodynamic flow assumptions and models. The stability computations for this configuration show that sinuous and varicose disturbances also dominate the wake instability in the presence of vibrational molecular energy mode excitation and chemical reactions. The resulting base-flow cooling associated with the modeling of such high-temperature phenomena is found to have opposite stabilizing and destabilizing effects on the streamwise evolution of the sinuous and varicose instabilities. The modeling of vibrational excitation and chemical non-equilibrium acting exclusively on the perturbations is found to have a stabilizing influence in all cases. / Doctorat en Sciences de l'ingénieur et technologie / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Aviation industry is continuously growing especially for very long distance flights due to the globalisation of local economies around the world and the explosive economic growth in Asia. Reducing the time of intercontinental flights from 16-20 hours to 4 hours or less would therefore make the, already booming, ultra-long distance aviation sector even more attractive. To accomplish this drastic travel time reduction for civil transport, hypersonic cruise aircraft are considered as a potential cost-effective solution. Such vehicles should also be fuelled by liquid hydrogen, which is identified as the only viable propellant to achieve antipodal hypersonic flight with low environmental impact. Despite considerable research on hypersonic aircraft and hydrogen fuel, several major challenges should still be addressed before such airliner becomes reality. The current thesis is therefore motivated by the potential benefit of hydrogen-fuelled hypersonic cruise vehicles associated with their limited state-of-the-art.Hypersonic cruise aircraft require innovative structural configurations and thermal management solutions due to the extremely harsh flight environment, while the uncommon physical properties of liquid hydrogen, combined with high and long-term heat fluxes, introduce complex design and technological storage issues. Achieving hypersonic cruise vehicles is also complicated by the multidisciplinary nature of their design. In the scope of the present research, appropriate methodologies are developed to assess, design and optimize the thermo-structural model and the cryogenic fuel tanks of long-range hydrogen-fuelled hypersonic civil aircraft. Two notional vehicles, cruising at Mach 5 and Mach 8, are then investigated with the implemented methodologies. The design analysis of light yet highly insulated liquid hydrogen tanks for hypersonic cruise vehicles indicates an optimal gravimetric efficiency of 70-75% depending on insulation system, tank wall material, tank diameter, and flight profile. A combination of foam and load-bearing aerogel blanket leads to the lightest cryogenic tank for both the Mach 5 and the Mach 8 aircraft. If the aerogel blanket cannot be strengthened sufficiently so that it can bear the full load, then a combination of foam and fibrous insulation materials gives the best solution for both vehicles. The aero-thermal and structural design analysis of the Mach 5 cruiser shows that the lightest hot-structure is a titanium alloy construction made of honeycomb sandwich panels. This concept leads to a wing-body weight of 143.9 t, of which 36% accounts for the wing, 32% for the fuselage, and 32% for the cryogenic tanks. As expected, hypersonic thermal loads lead to important weight penalties (of more than 35%). The design of the insulated cold structure, however, demonstrates that the long-term high-speed flight of the airliner requires a substantial thermal protection system, such that the best configuration (obtained by load-bearing aerogel blanket) leads to a titanium cold design of only 4% lighter than the hot structure. Using aluminium 7075 rather than titanium offers a further weight saving of about 2%, resulting in a 135.4 t wing-body weight (with a contribution of 23%, 25%, 18% and 34% from the TPS, the wing, the fuselage, and the cryogenic tanks respectively). Given the design hypotheses, the difference in weight is not significant enough to make a decisive choice between hot and cold concepts. This requires the current methodologies to be further elaborated by relaxing the simplifications. Investigation of the thermal protection must be extended from one single point to different regions of the vehicle, and the TPS thickness and weight should be considered in the structural sizing of the cold design. More generally, the design process should be matured by including additional (static, dynamic and transient) loads, special structural concepts, multi-material configurations and other parameters such as cost and safety aspects. / Doctorat en Sciences de l'ingénieur et technologie / This thesis was conducted in co-tutelle between University of Sydney and Université Libre de Bruxelles.Professor Dries Verstraete was my supervisor at the University of Sydney (so as a member of SydneyUni), but is automatically registered here as a member of ULB because he worked at ULB almost ten years ago.Ben Thornber is also a member of the University of Sydney but the application does not save it for an unknown reason. / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

The numerical modelling of the VKI-Longshot facility remains a challeng-ing task as it requires multi-physical numerical methods in order to simulate all the components. In the current dissertation, numerical tools were developed in order to study each component of the facility separately and a deep investigations of each stage of the shot were performed. This helped to better understand the different processes involved in the flow development inside this hypersonic wind tunnel. However the numerical computation of different regions of the facility treated as independent from each others remains an approximation at best.The accuracy of the rebuilding code for determining the free stream conditions and the total enthalpy in the VKI-Longshot facility was investigated by using a series of unsteady numerical computations of axisymmetric hypersonic flow over a heat flux probe. Good agreement was obtained between the numerical results and the measured data for both the stagnation pressure and the heat flux dur- ing the useful test time.The driver-driven part of the Longshot facility was modelled using the quasi one-dimensional Lagrangian solver L1d2. The three main conditions used for the experiments —low, medium and high Reynolds number —were considered.The chambrage effect due to the junction between the driver and the driven tubes in the VKI-Longshot facility was investigated. The computation showed great ben- efit of the chambrage in increasing the speed of the piston and thus the final compression ratio of the test gas.Two dimensional simulations of the flow in the driver and the driven tube were performed using Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian (ALE) solver in COOLFLuiD. A parallel multi-domain strategy was developed in order to integrate the moving piston within the computational domain.The computed pressure in the reservoir is compared to the one provided by the experiment and good agreement was obtained for both con- editions.Finally, an attempt was made to compute the starting process of the flow in the contoured nozzle. The transient computation of the flow showed how the primary shock initiates the flow in the nozzle before reaching the exit plan at time of 1.5 [ms] after the diaphragm rupture. The complex interactions of the reflected shocks in the throat raise the temperature above 9500 [K] which was not expected. Chemical dissociation of Nitrogen was not taken into account during this transient investigation which may play a key role considering the range of temperature reached near the throat. / Doctorat en Sciences de l'ingénieur / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Ce document synthétise mes actions de recherches dans la métrologie optique pour l'hypersonique à haute enthalpie rencontré lors d'une rentrée atmosphérique. Je présente en début de ce document la problématique de la rentrée atmosphérique dont la maîtrise est primordiale pour le retour sur Terre d'un vol habité ou d'une sonde de retour d'échantillons. Je décris ensuite les moyens de mesures servant à caractériser le gaz en écoulement autour d'un véhicule de rentrée en test dans une soufflerie ou en vol de démonstration. En particulier les moyens d'optique linéaire que sont la fluorescence induite par faisceau d'électrons (FFE) ou par laser, la spectroscopie d'absorption ou d'émission et le LIDAR à diffusion Rayleigh.

Dans le cadre de cette thèse, nous nous sommes intéressés d'abord au mécanisme de résonance locale en développant différents modèles théoriques pour l'étude de nouveaux cristaux phononiques à résonance locale (CPRL) en plaque dont l'élément principal et l'élastomère (silicone rubber). Le mode opératoire de ce mécanisme a été étudié et les ouvertures des bandes interdites ont été interprétées théoriquement ainsi que les phénomènes physiques mis en jeu. La mise en évidence expérimentale de la bande interdite a été réalisée par la fabrication et la caractérisation de structures CPRL et une parfaite concordance a été constatée entre les résultats théoriques et expérimentaux. Une étude des phénomènes de guidage a permis par ailleurs de montrer la possibilité du confinement et de la transmission d'un seul mode élastique au niveau d'un CPRL. Dans un second temps, nous avons montré que les propriétés d'un CPRL peuvent être reproduites dans le régime hypersonique. En effet, par le biais de la mise en place d'un nouveau modèle théorique et en proposant un nouveau CPRL à ondes de surface à base de films de diamant, nous avons pu montrer que ce type de cristal peut faire l'objet d'applications potentielles à des fins de guidage et de démultiplexage et ainsi initier la conception de nouveaux dispositifs miniaturisés à ondes de surface destinés aux systèmes de télécommunications (>GHz). / In this PhD work, we focused our interest on the theoretical and experimental study of locally resonant phononic crystals (LRPC) operating in sonic and hypersonic regimes. We first developed numerical models to understand the dispersion behaviour of elastic waves in those plate-type LRPC in which the silicone rubber plays a key role. We showed that with such structure, we can understand clearly how the local resonance (LR) mechanism operates to give rise to opening of low frequency BG two orders of magnitude that the one allowed by Bragg diffusion. The physics behind such structures was also figured out by means of theoretical models. An experimental study was then undertaken by manufacturing a new LRPC plate which has been characterized in terms of elastic behaviour and BG investigation. A perfect concordance was demonstrated between the theoretical an experimental results by evidencing a 2kHz BG opening using a 6mm diameter rubber stub and 1cm periodicity. In addition, waveguiding phenomena was investigated in those structures and showed the possibility of guiding of only one defect mode unlike conventional PCs in which many defects modes are generated. A second part of this study was dealt with LR mechanism in hypersonic regime. Using a new numerical and theoretical approach, we were able to show the BG opening and waveguiding for surface acoustic waves (SAW) in a LRPC composed of metallic stubs arranged on a diamond semi-infinite substrate. The added value of LR in such frequency regime remains in its ability to select only one guided mode due to the longer involved wavelengths. Such structures can then be suitable for filtering and demultiplexing applications.

Lors d’un vol hypersonique (Mach 6, 20 km d’altitude) la couche limite se développant sur l’avant-corps d’un véhicule hypersonique est laminaire. Cet état cause un désamorçage du moteur (statoréacteur) assurant la propulsion du véhicule. Pour pallier ce problème, il faut forcer la transition de la couche limite á l’aide d’un dispositif de contrôle dont l’effet est permanent (passif) ou modulable (actif) pendant le vol. Dans ce travail, nous analysons l’efficacité d’un dispositif actif d’injection d’air á la paroi pour forcer la transition de la couche limite sur un avant-corps générique. L’interaction jet d’air/couche limite est simulée numériquement avec une approche aux grandes échelles (LES). Une étude paramétrique sur la pression d’injection permet de quantifier l’efficacité du jet á déstabiliser la couche limite. L’influence des conditions de vol (altitude, Mach) sur la transition est également étudiée. Une analyse des résultats de simulation par Décomposition en Modes Dynamiques (DMD) est menée pour comprendre quels sont les modes dynamiques responsables de la transition et les mécanismes sous-jacents. Des essais dans la soufflerie silencieuse de l’université de Purdue (BAM6QT) ont été effectués pour tester expérimentalement l’efficacité des dispositifs passifs (rugosité isolée en forme de losange) et actifs (mono-injection d’air) pour faire transitionner la couche limite. Une peinture thermo-sensible et des capteurs de pression (PCB, Kulite) ont été utilisés pour déterminer la nature de la couche limite. Les résultats de ce travail montrent qu’une injection sonique suffit pour forcer la couche limite. On observe des essais, que pour une même hauteur de pénétration, les rugosités isolées sont moins efficaces que les jets (mono injection) pour déstabiliser la couche limite. / During a hypersonic flight (Mach 6, 20 km altitude), the boundary layer developing on the forebody of a vehicle is laminar. This state may destabilize the scramjet engine propelling the vehicle. To overcome this problem during the flight, the boundary layer transition has to be forced using a control device whose effect is fixed (passive) or adjustable (active). In this work, we analyze the efficiency of a jet in crossflow in forcing the boundary layer transition on a generic forebody. The flow is computed with a Large Eddy Simulations (LES) approach. A parametric study of the injection pressure allows the efficiency of the jet in tripping the boundary layer to be quantified. The influence of flight conditions (Mach, altitude) on the transition is also studied. Dynamic Mode Decomposition (DMD) is applied to the simulation results to determine the transition leading to dynamic modes and to understand underlying transition mechanisms. Experiments in the Purdue University quiet wind tunnel (BAM6QT) were performed to quantify the efficiency of a passive transition device (diamond roughnesses) and an active transition device (single air jet) in tripping the boundary layer. A thermo-sensitive paint and pressure transducers (Kulite, PCB) were used to determine the state of the boundary layer on the generic forebody. Experimental and numerical results show a sonic injection is sufficient to induce transition. We observe from the experiments that for the same penetration height, a single roughness is less efficient than a single air jet in destabilizing the boundary layer.