In the flying field of space transportation domain, the increased efforts involving design and development of hypersonic flight for space missions is on toe to provide the optimum aerothermodynamic design data to satisfy mission requirements. Aerothermodynamics is the basis for designing and development of hypersonic space transportation flight vehicles such as X 51 a, and other programmes like planetary probes for Moon and Mars, and Earth re-entry vehicles such as SRE and space shuttle. It enables safe flying of aerospace vehicles, keeping other parameters optimum for structural and materials with thermal protection systems. In this context, the experimental investigations on hypersonic waverider are carried out at design Mach 6. The hypersonic waverider has high lift to drag ratio at design Mach number even at zero degree angle of incidence, and this seems to be one of the special characteristics for its shape at hypersonic flight regime. The heat transfer rates are measured using 30 thin film platinum gauges sputtered on a Macor material that are embedded on the test model. The waverider has 16 sensors on top surface and 14 on bottom surface of a model. The surface temperature history is directly converted to heat transfer rates. The heat transfer data are measured for design (Mach 6) and off-design Mach numbers (8) in the hypersonic shock tunnel, HST2. The results are obtained at stagnation enthalpy of ~ 2 MJ/kg, and Reynolds number range from 0.578 x 106 m-1 to 1.461 x 106 m-1. In addition, flow visualization is carried out by using Schlieren technique to obtain the shock structures and flow evolution around the Waverider. Some preliminary computational analyses are conducted using FLUENT 6.3 and HiFUN, which gave quantitative results. Experimentally measured surface heat flux data are compared with the computed one and both the data agree well. These detailed results are presented in the thesis.

A body exposed to hypersonic flow is subjected to extremely high wall heating rates, owing to the conversion of the kinetic energy of the oncoming flow into heat through the formation of shock waves and viscous dissipation in the boundary layer and this is one of the main concerns in the design of any hypersonic vehicle. The conventional way of tackling this problem is to use a blunt fore-body, but it also results in an increase in wave drag and puts the penalty of excessive load on the propulsion system. An alternative approach is to alter the flow field using external means without changing the shape of the body; and several such methods are reported in the literature. The superiority of such methods lie in the fact that the effective shape of the body can be altered to meet the requirements of low wave drag, without having to pay the penalty of an increased wall heat transfer rate. Among these techniques, the use of local energy addition in the freestream to alter the flow field is particularly promising due to the flexibility it offers. By the suitable placement of the energy source relative to the body, this method can be effectively used to reduce the wave drag, to generate control forces and to optimise the performance of inlets. Although substantial number of numerical investigations on this topic is reported in the literature, there is no experimental evidence available, especially under hypersonic flow conditions, to support the feasibility of this concept. The purpose of this thesis is to experimentally investigate the effect of energy deposition on the flow-field of a 120� apex angle blunt cone in a hypersonic shock tunnel. Energy deposition is done using an electric arc discharge generated between two electrodes placed in the free stream and various parameters influencing the effectiveness of this technique are studied. The effect of energy deposition on aerodynamic parameters such as the drag force acting on the model and the wall heat flux has been investigated. In addition, the unsteady flow field is visualised using a standard Z-type schlieren flow visualisation setup. The experimental studies have shown a maximum reduction in drag of 50% and a reduction in stagnation point heating rate of 84% with the deposition of 0.3 kW of energy. The investigations also show that the location of energy deposition has a vital role in determining the flow structure; with no noticeable effects being produced in the flow field when the discharge source is located close to the body (0.416 times body diameter). In addition, the type of the test gas used is also found to have a major influence on the effectiveness of energy deposition, suggesting that thermal effects of energy deposition govern the flow field alteration mechanism. The freestream mass flux is also identified as an important parameter. These findings were also confirmed by surface pressure measurements. The experimental evidence also indicates that relaxation of the internal degrees of freedom play a major role in the determination of the flow structure. For the present experimental conditions, it has been observed that the flow field alteration is a result of the interaction of the heated region behind the energy spot with the blunt body shock wave. In addition to the experimental studies, numerical simulations of the flow field with energy deposition are also carried out and the experimentally measured aerodynamic drag with energy deposition is found to match reasonably well with the computed values.

For flights beyond Mach 6 ramjets are inefficient engines due to huge total pressure loss in the normal shock systems, combustion conditions that lose a large fraction of the available chemical energy due to dissociation and high structural loads. However if the flow remains supersonic inside the combustion chamber, the above problems could be alleviated and here the concept of SCRAMJET(supersonic combustion ramjet) comes into existence. The scramjets could reduce launching cost of satellites by carrying only fuel and ingesting oxygen from atmospheric air. Further applications could involve defense and transcontinental hypersonic transport. In the current study an effort is made to achieve supersonic combustion in a ground based short duration test facility(combustion driven shock-tunnel), which in addition to flight Mach number can simulate flight Reynolds number as well. In this study a simple method of injection i.e. wall injection of the fuel into the combustion chamber is used. The work starts with threedimensional numerical simulation of a non-reacting gas(air) injection into a hypersonic cross-flow of air to determine the conditions in which air penetrates reasonably well into the cross-flow. Care is taken so that the process does not induce huge pressure loss due to the bow shock which appears in front of the jet column. The code is developed in-house and parallelized using OpenMp model. This is followed by experiments on air injection into a hypersonic cross-flow of air in a conventional shock-tunnel HST2 existing in IISc. The most tricky part is synchronization of injection with start of test-flow in such a short duration(test time 1 millisecond) facility. Next part focuses on numerical simulations to determine the free-stream conditions, mainly the temperature and pressure of air, so that combustion takes place when hydrogen is injected into a supersonic cross-flow of air. The simulations are two-dimensional and includes species conservation equations and source terms due to chemical reactions in addition to the Navier-Stokes equations. This code is also built in-house and parallelized because of more number of operations with the inclusion of species conservation equations and chemical non-equilibrium. However, the predicted conditions were not achievable by HST2 due to low stagnation conditions of HST2. Therefore, a new shock-tunnel which could produce the required conditions is built. The new tunnel is a combustion driven shock-tunnel in which the driver gas is at higher temperature than conventional shock-tunnel. The driver gas is basically a mixture of hydrogen, oxygen and helium at a mole ratio of 2:1:10 initially. The mixture is ignited by spark plugs and the hydrogen and oxygen reacts releasing heat. The heat released raises the temperature of the mixture which is now predominantly helium and small fractions of water vapour and some radicals. The composition of the driver gas and initial pressure are determined through numerical simulations. Experiments follow in the new tunnel on hydrogen injection into a region of supersonic cross-flow between two parallel plates with a wedge attached to the bottom plate. The wedge reduces the hypersonic free-stream to Mach 2. A high-speed camera monitors the flow domain around injection point and sharp rise in luminosity is observed. To ascertain whether the luminosity is due to combustion or not, two more driven gases namely nitrogen and oxygen-rich air are used and the luminosity is compared. In the first case, the free-stream contains no oxygen and luminosity is not observed whereas in the second case higher luminosity than air driver case is visible. Additionally heat-transfer rates are measured at the downstream end of the model and at a height midway between the plates. Similar trend is observed in the relative heat-transfer rates. Wall static pressure at a location downstream of injection port is also measured and compared with numerical simulations. Results of numerical simulations which are carried out at the same conditions as of experiments confirm combustion at supersonic speed. Experiments and numerical simulations show presence of supersonic combustion in the setup. However, further study is necessary to optimize the parameters so that thrust force could be generated efficiently.

The emerging and competitive environment in the space technology requires the improvements in the capability of aerodynamic vehicles. This leads to the analysis in drag reduction of the vehicle along with the minimized heat transfer rate. Using forward facing solid aerospike is the simplest way among the existing drag reduction methodologies for hypersonic blunt cone bodies. But the flow oscillations associated with this aerospike makes it difficult to implement. When analyzing this flow, it can be understood that this oscillating flow can be compared to conical cavity flow. Therefore in the spiked flows, it is decided to implement the technique used in reducing the flow oscillation of the cavities. Based on this method the shallow conical cavity flow generated by the aerospike fixed ahead of a 120o blunt cone body is fissured as multiple cavities by so many disks formed from 10o cone. Now the deep conical cavities had the length to mean depth ratio of unity; this suppresses the unnecessary oscillations of the shallow cavity. The total length of the telescopic aerospike is fixed as 100mm. And one another conical tip plain aerospike of same length is designed for comparing the telescopic spike’s performance at hypersonic flow Mach numbers of 5.75 and 7.9. A three component force balance system capable of measuring drag, lift and pitching moment is designed and mounted internally into the skirt of the model. Drag measurement is done for without spike, conical tip plain spiked and telescopic spiked blunt cone body. The three configurations are tested at different angles of attack from 0 to 10 degree with a step of 2. A discrete iterative deconvolution methodology is implemented in this research work for obtaining the clean drag history from the noisy drag accelerometer signal. The drag results showed the drag reduction when compared to the without spike blunt cone body. When comparing to the plain spiked, the telescopic spiked blunt cone body has lesser drag at higher angles of attack. Heat transfer measurements are done over the blunt cone surface using the Platinum thin film gauges formed over the Macor substrate. These results and the flow visualization give better understanding of the flow and the heat flux rate caused by the flow. The enhancement in the heat flux rate over the blunt cone surface is due to the shock interaction. And in recirculation region the heat flux rate is very much lesser when compared to without spike blunt cone body. It is observed that the shock interaction in the windward side is coming closer towards the nose of the blunt cone as the angle of attack increases and the oscillation of the oblique shock also decreases. Schlieren visualization showed that there is dispersion in the oblique shock, particularly in the leeward side. In the telescopic spike there are multiple shocks generated from each and every disk which coalesces together to form a single oblique shock. And the effect of the shock generated by the telescopic spike is stronger than the effect of the shock generated by the conical tip plain spike.

The recent resurgence in hypersonics is centered around the development of SCRAMJET engine technology to power future hypersonic vehicles. Successful flight trials by Australian and American scientists have created interest in the scramjet engine research across the globe. To develop scramjet engine, it is important to study heat transfer effects on the engine performance and aerodynamic forces acting on the body. Hence, the main aim of present investigation is the design of scramjet engine configuration and measurement of aerodynamic forces acting on the model and heat transfer rates along the length of the combustor. The model is a two-dimensional single ramp model and is designed based on shock-on-lip (SOL) condition. Experiments are performed in IISc hypersonic shock tunnel HST2 at two different Mach numbers of 8 and 7 for different angles of attack. Aerodynamic forces measurements using three-component accelerometer force balance and heat transfer rates measurements using platinum thin film sensors deposited on Macor substrate are some of the shock tunnel flow diagnostics that have been used in this study.

Shock Boundary Layer Interactions (SBLIs) and shock-shock interactions are some of the most fundamental problems in high speed aerodynamics. These interactions are of particular importance in scramjet intakes at hypersonic speeds. In hypersonic own with strong SBLI accompanied by own separation, large separation bubbles can form due to high impinging shock strengths. While experiments involving large separation lengths for the impinging shock boundary layer interactions near sharp leading edge are well documented in the literature, only few investigations on the effect of leading edge bluntness on the interactions are studied. In the present study, experiments were carried out to study the role of leading edge bluntness on the impinging shock boundary layer interactions. An oblique shock generated by a wedge (wedge angle 31 degrees) is made to impinge on a at plate (length 200 mm) over which a boundary layer develops. Different leading edge inserts were used on a at plate to get either a sharp or a blunt (radii from 2 to 8 mm) leading edge. The position of the at plate was moved horizontally with respect to the wedge to vary the shock impingement location relative to the leading edge. Experiments were carried out at two freestream conditions - Mach 5.88 (total enthalpy of 1.26 MJ/kg and freestream Reynolds number of 3.85 million per meter) and Mach 8.54 (total enthalpy of 1.85 MJ/kg and freestream Reynolds number of 1.41 million per meter). The various features of the interaction along with different parameters were obtained from schlieren visualizations and surface pressure measurements. The schlieren visualization was used to obtain the separation length, while the reattachment pressure was obtained from the surface pressure distribution. From the present experimental study, a reduction in separation length was observed with an increase in leading edge bluntness. It was also seen that the sharp leading edge had the maximum separation length. Correlations for the separation length and the reattachment pressure have been proposed for these experimental conditions. Numerical simulations were also carried out using commercial software and they had a qualitative agreement with the experiments.

Despite years of research in high speed boundary layer flow, there is still a need for insightful experiments to realize key features of the flow like boundary layer response to different conditions and related transition mechanisms. Volumes of data on the these problems point to the fact that there is still much to be understood about the nature of boundary layer instability causing transition and growth of boundary layer in different conditions. Boundary layer stability experiments have been found to be more useful, in which the boundary layer is perturbed and its behavior observed to infer useful conclusions. Also, apart from the stability part, the effect of various changes in boundary layer due to the perturbation makes interesting observation to gain more insight into the understood and the not so understood facets of the same. In view of the above, the effect of a steady axisymmetric thermal bump is investigated on a hypersonic boundary layer over a 60º sharp cone cylinder model. The thermal bump, placed near tip of the cone, perturbs the boundary layer, the behavior of which is observed by recording the wall heat flux on the cone and cylinder surface using platinum thin film sensors. The state of the boundary layer is qualitatively assessed by the wall heat flux comparisons between laminar and turbulent values. The same thermal bump also acts as a heat addition source to boundary layer in which case this recorded data provides a look into the effect of the heat addition to the wall heat flux. To gain a larger view of heat addition causing changes to the flow, effects of change in enthalpy are also considered. Experiments are performed in the IISc HST2 shock tunnel facility at 2MJkg−1 stag-nation enthalpy and Mach number of 8,with and without the thermal bump to form comparisons. Some experiments are also performed in the IISc HST3 free piston driven shock tunnel facility at 6MJkg−1, to investigate the effect of change in stagnation enthalpy on the wall heat flux. To support the experimental results theoretical comparisons and computational studies have also been carried out. The results of experiments show that the laminar boundary layer over the whole model remains laminar even when perturbed by the thermal bump. The wall heat flux measurements show change on the cone part where there seems to be fluctuation in the temperature gradients caused by the thermal bump, which decrease at first and then show an increase towards the base of the cone. The cylinder part remains the same with and without the thermal bump, indicating heavy damping effects by the expansion fan at cone cylinder junction. A local peak in wall heat flux is observed at the junction which is reduced by 64% by the action of the thermal bump. The possible reason for this is attributed to the increased temperature gradients at the wall due to delayed dissipation of heat that is accumulated in the boundary layer as a result of the thermal bump action. The comparison of data for enthalpies of 2MJkg−1 and 6MJkg−1 show that there are negligible real gas effects in the higher enthalpy case and they do not affect the wall heat flux much. Also it is found that the thermal bump fails to dump heat into the flow directly though it creates heat addition virtually by mere discontinuity in the surface temperature and causes temperature gradients fluctuation in the boundary layer. Considering the thermal bump action and the change in stagnation enthalpy of the flow, there seems to be no change in both cases that can be attributed to a common observation resulting from the factor of change in heat inside the boundary layer.

The growing requirements to achieve hypersonic flights, as in the case of reentry vehicles, pose a serious challenge to the designers. This demands an understanding of the features of hypersonic flow and its effect on hypersonic vehicles. Hypersonic shock tunnels are one of the most widely used facilities for the purpose of obtaining valuable design data by conducting experiments on scaled down models. They are operated by conventional shock tubes by rupturing metal diaphragms placed between the driver and driven sections of the shock tube. Shock tunnels are being extensively used in spite of some of the drawbacks they possess. Due to the varying nature of metal diaphragm rupture, reproducibility of the experiment results is difficult to obtain. Damage to model and inner surface of the shock tube can happen when the diaphragm petal breaks away from the diaphragm. Lastly the time consuming diaphragm replacement process is not desired in applications which require quick loading of shock waves on the specimen. All these disadvantages call for the replacement of the diaphragm mode of operation with a diaphragmless mode of operation for the generation of shock waves. The main objective of the present study is to design and demonstrate the working of a diaphragmless hypersonic shock tunnel. The motivation for the present study comes from the fact that the diaphragmless operation of a shock tunnel has not been reported so far in the open literature. All the research works carried out deal with diaphragmless drivers operating only a shock tube. In the present work, the conventional metal diaphragm is substituted by fast acting pneumatic valves which serve the purpose of quickly opening the driven section of the shock tube to allow the driver gas to rush in, resulting in the formation of a shock wave. To design a diaphragmless driver, a detailed study of the shock formation process is accomplished which helps in understanding the effect of valve opening time on the shock formation distance. Also the theoretical basis for the design of a pneumatic cylinder is understood. Following the theoretical studies, three types of diaphragmless drivers are designed and tested. The first setup incorporates a rubber membrane, which acts as a valve. The rubber membrane when bulged closes the mouth of the driven section and on retraction the driven section is opened to the driver gas. The second and the third setups utilise two different types of double acting pneumatic cylinders. Experimental results of the three diaphragmless drivers operating a shock tube are analysed and compared with the ideal shock tube theory. Better repeatability in terms of shock Mach number is shown with all three diaphragmless shock tubes when compared with a conventionally operated shock tube. Finally, the best among the three systems is identified to operate the hypersonic shock tunnel 2 (HST2) facility of the Shock Waves laboratory, IISc. Demonstration of the working of the diaphragmless shock tunnel is shown by performing heat transfer measurements on a 3 mm backward facing step flat plate model. The experimental results are compared with those obtained in a conventional shock tunnel. CFD studies on diaphragmless shock tube model are done to have an idea on the flow in the shock tube there by identifying the shock formation distance. ANSYS-CFX package is used for this purpose. Further, results from the numerical simulation of hypersonic flow over the backward facing step model are compared with the experimental results thus validating the code.

Knowledge of flow separation is very essential for proper understanding of both external and internal aerothermodynamics of bodies. Because of unique flow features such as thick boundary layers, merged shock layers, strong entropy layers, flow separation in the flow field of bodies at hypersonic speeds, is both complex as well as interesting. The problem of flow separation is further complicated at very high stagnation enthalpies because of the real gas effects. Notwithstanding the plethora of information available in open literature even for simple geometric configurations the experimentally determined locations of flow separation and re-attachment points do not match well with the results from the computational studies even at hypersonic laminar flow conditions. In this backdrop the main aim of the present study is to generate a reliable experimental database of classical separated flow features around generic configurations at hypersonic laminar flow conditions. In the present study, flow visualization using high speed camera, surface convective heat transfer rate measurements using platinum thin film sensors, and direct skin friction measurements using PZT crystals have been carried out for characterizing the separated flow field around backward facing step, double cone and double wedge models. The numerical simulations by solving the Navier-Stokes equations have also been carried out to complement the experimental studies. The generic models selected in the present study are simple configurations, where most of the classical hypersonic separated flow features of two-dimensional, axi-symmetric and three dimensional flow fields can be observed. All the experiments are carried out in IISc hypersonic shock tunnel (HST2) at Mach 5.75 and 7.6. For present study, helium and air have been used as the driver and test gases respectively. The high speed schlieren flow visualization is carried out on backward facing step (2 and 3 mm step height), double cone (semi-apex angles of 150/350 and 250/680) and double wedge (semi-apex angles of 150/350) models by using high speed camera (Phantom 7.1). From the visualized shockwave structure in the flow field the flow reattachment point after separation has been clearly identified for backward facing step, double cone and double wedge models at hypersonic Mach numbers while the separation point could not be clearly identified because of the low free stream density in shock tunnels. However the flow visualization studies helped clearly identifying the region of flow separation on the model. Based on the results from the flow visualization studies both the physical location and distribution of platinum thin film gauges was finalized for the heat transfer rate measurements. Surface heat transfer rates along the length of two backward facing step (2 and 3 mm step height) models have been measured using platinum thin film gauges deposited on Macor substrate. The Eckert reference temperature method is used along the flat plate for predicting the heat flux distribution. Theoretical analysis of heat flux distribution down stream of the backward facing step model has been carried out using Gai’s dimensional analysis. The study reveals for the first time that at moderate stagnation enthalpy levels (~2 MJ/kg) the hypersonic separated flow around a backward facing step reattaches rather smoothly without any sudden spikes in the measured values of surface heat transfer rates. Based on the measured surface heating rates on the backward facing step, the reattachment distance was estimated to be approximately 10 and 8 step heights downstream of 2 and 3 mm step respectively at nominal Mach number of 7.6. Convective surface heat transfer experiments have also been carried out on axi-symmetric double cone models (semi-apex angles of 15/35 and 25/68), which is analogous to the Edney’s shock interactions of Type VI and Type IV respectively. The flow is unsteady on the double cone model of 25/68 and measured heat flux is not constant. The heat transfer experiments were also carried out on the three-dimensional double wedge model (semi-apex angles of 15/35). The separation and reattachment points have been clearly identified from the experimental heat transfer measurements. It has been observed that the measured heat transfer rates on the double wedge model is less than the double cone model (semi-apex angles of 150/350) for the identical experimental conditions at the same gauge locations. This difference could be due to the three-dimensional entropy relieving effects of double wedge model. PZT-5H piezoelectric based skin friction gauge is developed and used for direct skin friction measurements in hypersonic shock tunnel (HST2). The bare piezoelectric PZT-5H elements (5 mm × 5 mm with thickness of 0.75 mm) polarized in the shear mode have been used as a skin friction gauge by operating the sensor in the parallel shear mode direction. The natural frequency of the skin friction sensor is ~80 kHz, which is suitable for impulse facilities. The direct skin friction measurements are carried out on flat plate, backward facing step (2 mm step height) and double wedge models. The measured value of skin friction coefficient (integrated over an area of 25 sq. mm; sensor surface area) at a distance of 23 mm from the leading edge of the sharp leading edge backward facing step model is found to be ~ 0.0043 while it decreases to ~ 0.003 at a distance of 43 mm from the leading edge at a stagnation enthalpy of ~ 2MJ/kg. The measured skin friction matches with the Eckert reference temperature within ± 10%. The skin friction coefficient is also measured on the double wedge at a distance of 73 mm from the tip of the first wedge along the surface and is found to be 4.56 × 10-3. Viscous flow numerical simulations are carried out on two-dimensional backward facing step, axi-symmetric double cone and three-dimensional double wedge models using ANSYS-CFX 5.7 package. Navier-Stokes Simulations are carried out at Mach 5.75 and 7.6 using second order accurate (both in time and space) high resolution scheme. The flow is assumed to be laminar and steady throughout the model length except on the double cone (semi-apex angles of 250/680) model configuration, which represents the unsteady flow geometry. Analogous Edney Type VI and Type IV shock interactions are observed on double cone, double wedge (semi-apex angles of 150/350) and double cone (semi-apex angles of 250/680) models respectively from the CFD results. Experimentally measured convective heat transfer rates on the above models are compared with the numerical simulation results. The numerical simulation results matches well with the experimental heat transfer data in the attached flow regions. Considerable differences are observed between the measured surface heat transfer rates and numerical simulations both in the separated flow region and on the second cone/wedge surfaces. The separation and reattachment points can be clearly identified from both experimental measurements and numerical simulations. The results from the numerical simulations are also compared with results from the high speed flow visualization experiments. The experimental database of surface convective heating rates, direct skin friction coefficient and shockwave structure in laminar hypersonic flow conditions will be very useful for validating CFD codes

Hypersonic flow is both fascinating and intriguing mainly because of presence of strong entropy and viscous interactions in the flow field. Notwithstanding the tremendous advancements in numerical modeling in the last decade separated hypersonic flow still remains an area where considerable differences are observed between experiments and numerical results. Lack of reliable data base of surface static pressures with good spatial resolution in hypersonic separated flow field is one of the main motivations for the present study. The experiments in hypersonic shock tunnels has an advantage compared to wind tunnels for simulating the total energy content of the flow in addition to the Mach and Reynolds numbers. However the useful test time in shock tunnels is of the order of few milliseconds. Hence in shock tunnel experiments it is essential to have pressure measurement devices which has special features such as small in size, faster response time and the sensors in array form with improved spatial resolutions. Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) is an emerging technology, which holds lot of promise in these types of applications. In view of the above requirement, MEMS based pressure sensor array was developed to measure the static pressure distribution. The study is comprised of two parts: one is on the development of MEMS based pressure sensor array, which can be used for hypersonic application and other is on experimental static pressure measurement using MEMS based sensors in separated hypersonic flow over a backward facing step model. Initially a static pressure sensor array with 25 sensors was developed. The static calibration of sensor array was carried out to characterize the sensor array for various characteristic parameters. The preliminary experimental study with cluster of 25 MEMS sensor array mounted on the flat plate did not provide reliable and repeatable results, but gave valuable inputs on the typical problems of using MEMS sensors in short duration hypersonic ground test facilities like shock tunnels. Incidentally, to the best of our knowledge this is first report on use of MEMS based pressure sensors in hypersonic shock tunnel. Later cluster of 5 sensor array was developed with improved electronic packaging and surface finish. The experiments were conducted with flat plate by mounting 5 sensor array shows good agreement in static pressure measurement compared with standard sensors. In the second part of the study a backward facing step model, which simulates the typical gasdynamic flow features associated with hypersonic flow separation is designed. Backward facing step model with step height of 3 mm was mounted with sensor array along the length of model. Just after the step, static pressure measurements were carried out with MEMS sensors. It is important to note that, in the space available in backward facing step model we could mount only one conventional Kulite pressure transducer. The experiments were conducted at Mach number of 6.3 and at stagnation enthalpy of 1.5 MJ/kg in hypersonic shock tunnel (HST-5) at IISc. Based on the static pressure measurement on backward facing step, the location of separation and reattachment points were clearly identified. The static pressure values show that reattachment of flow takes place at about 7 step heights. Numerical simulations were carried out using commercial CFD code, FLUENT for flat plate and backward facing step models to compliment the experiments. The experimental tests results match well with the illustrative numerical simulations results.