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  • About
  • The Global ETD Search service is a free service for researchers to find electronic theses and dissertations. This service is provided by the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations.
    Our metadata is collected from universities around the world. If you manage a university/consortium/country archive and want to be added, details can be found on the NDLTD website.
1

Nonlinear Adaptive Controller Design For Air-breathing Hypersonic Vehicles

Fiorentini, Lisa 01 September 2010 (has links)
No description available.
2

Control-oriented Modeling of an Air-breathing Hypersonic Vehicle

Sudalagunta, Praneeth Reddy 02 September 2016 (has links)
Design and development of future high speed aircraft require the use of advanced modeling tools early on in the design phase to study and analyze complex aeroelastic, thermoelastic, and aerothermal interactions. This phase, commonly referred to as the conceptual design phase, involves using first principle based analytical models to obtain a practical starting point for the preliminary and detailed design phases. These analytical models are expected to, firstly, capture the effect of complex interactions between various subsystems using basic physics, and secondly, minimize computational costs. The size of a typical air-breathing hypersonic vehicle can vary anywhere between 12 ft, like the NASA X-43A, to 100 ft, like the NASP demonstrator vehicle. On the other hand, the performance expectations can vary anywhere between cruising at Mach 5 @ 85; 000 ft to Mach 10 @ 110; 000 ft. Reduction of computational costs is essential to efficiently sort through such a vast design space, while capturing the various complex interactions between subsystems has shown to improve accuracy of the design estimates. This motivates the need to develop modelling tools using first principle based analytical models with "needed" fidelity, where fidelity refers to the extent of interactions captured. With the advent of multidisciplinary design optimization tools, the need for an integrated modelling and analysis environment for high speed aircraft has increased substantially over the past two decades. The ever growing increase in performance expectations has made the traditional design approach of optimize first, integrate later obsolete. Designing a closed-loop control system for an aircraft might prove to be a difficult task with a geometry that yields an optimal (L/D) ratio, a structure with optimal material properties, and a propulsion system with maximum thrust-weight ratio. With all the subsystems already optimized, there is very little freedom for control designers to achieve their high performance goals. Integrated design methodologies focus on optimizing the overall design, as opposed to individual subsystems. Control-oriented modelling is an approach that involves making appropriate assumptions while modelling various subsystems in order to facilitate the inclusion of control design during the conceptual design phase. Due to their high lift-to-drag ratio and low operational costs, air-breathing hypersonic vehicles have spurred some interest in the field of high speed aircraft design over the last few decades. Modeling aeroelastic effects for such an aircraft is challenging due to its tightly integrated airframe and propulsion system that leads to significant deflections in the thrust vector caused by flexing of the airframe under extreme aerodynamic and thermal loads. These changes in the orientation of the thrust vector in turn introduce low frequency oscillations in the flight path angle, which make control system design a challenging task. Inclusion of such effects in the vehicle dynamics model to develop accurate control laws is an important part of control-oriented modeling. The air-breathing hypersonic vehicle considered here is assumed to be a thin-walled structure, where deformations due to axial, bending, shear, and torsion are modeled using the six independent displacements of a rigid cross section. Free vibration mode shapes are computed accurately using a novel scheme that uses estimates of natural frequency from the Ritz method as initial guesses to solve the governing equations using SUPORE, a two-point boundary value problem solver. A variational approach involving Hamilton's principle of least action is employed to derive the second order nonlinear equations of motion for the flexible aircraft. These nonlinear equations of motion are then linearized about a given cruise condition, modal analysis carried out on the linearized system, and the coupling between various significant modes studied. Further, open-loop stability analysis in time domain is conducted. / Ph. D.
3

Developing Effectiveness Measures for System Analysis Tools in Hypersonic Vehicle Design

Eli Vincent Sitchin (12469464) 27 April 2022 (has links)
<p>Throughout the design process, systems engineers use analysis tools to characterize the composition, development, and behavior of complex engineered systems. As such, designers must ensure that these tools generate accurate results for the systems they’re designed to analyze. One such suite of tools is the Analytic Workbench (AWB), a framework couched in a model-based systems engineering (MBSE) environment which provides methods for integrating constituent systems into a system-of-systems (SoS) or a complex engineered system, while taking into account the capabilities and requirements of the constituent systems, and the interdependencies between them. Hypersonic vehicles present a number of design challenges that result in a narrow performance envelope and a high degree of interdependence between subsystems, and so the AWB provides an appropriate tool set for characterizing the conceptual design of this class of system. The purpose of this thesis is to generate effectiveness metrics for the tools within the AWB — specifically Robust Portfolio Optimization (RPO) and System Developmental Dependency Analysis (SDDA) — in the context of a hypersonic vehicle design problem. In particular, this thesis focuses on verification and validation metrics, and applies these metrics to several demonstration cases, in which the outputs of RPO and SDDA analyses of a hypersonic vehicle model consisting of top-level subsystems are compared with a hypothetical physical vehicle. This thesis examines several candidate effectiveness metrics, and then applies the ones that satisfy the requirements for RPO and SDDA verification and validation to the appropriate demonstration cases. The AWB outputs for the vehicle models in these demonstration cases deviate slightly from the corresponding quantities for the hypothetical physical vehicles, and the effectiveness metrics decrease in value the greater these deviations are. Subsequent explorations of these metrics could apply these effectiveness to other types of design problems, including analyses involving lower-level subsystems of hypersonic vehicles.</p>
4

Contribution to study and implementation of intelligent adaptive control strategies : application to control of complex dynamic systems / Contribution à l’étude et à la mise en œuvre de stratégies adaptatives de commandes intelligentes : application au contrôle de systèmes dynamiques complexes

Yu, Weiwei 02 March 2011 (has links)
La principale limitation du modèle connexionniste (réseau neuronal artificiel) CMAC (Cerebellar Model Articulation Controller) et son applicabilité à la résolution des problèmes inhérents au systèmes automatisés complexes (robots, véhicules autonomes, etc.) est liée à la taille de mémoire requise par ce type de modèle connexionniste. Il est pertinent de rappeler que la capacité de mémoire exigée par le CMAC dépend, en premier lieu, de la précision de la quantification des signaux d'entrée, puis, de la dimension de l'espace des entrées (espace caractéristique) du système modélisé. Dans le cas des applications requérant une exécution en temps-réel, la tendance est à la réduction de l'espace caractéristique (aussi petit que possible) et la précision (de la quantification : aussi faible que possible). Cependant, souvent, les systèmes complexes impliquent plusieurs entrées. Pour résoudre le problème inhérent à cet antagonisme et la taille de la mémoire, nous nous sommes intéressés, dans la présente thèse, à l'influence des paramètres intervenant dans la précision de la quantification et dans la capacité de la généralisation sur la qualité d'approximation du modèle CMAC. L'objectif escompté était d'arriver à des structures optimales du CAMC pour le contrôle des systèmes dynamiques complexes. Les robots bipèdes (humanoïdes) et des véhicules volants hypersoniques sont deux domaines d'applications très actuelles impliquant des systèmes complexes. Nous avons appliqué des concepts étudiés aux problèmes soulevés par les deux domaines précités. Des résultats obtenus à partir de la simulation ont montré que des structures optimales ou quasi-optimales conduisant à une réduction sensible d'erreur de modélisation peuvent être obtenues. Ces résultats ont montré que les choix effectués dans l'optimisation de la structure permet une réduction de la taille de la mémoire requise (par le CMAC) et une réduction du temps d'exécution à la fois / The main limitation of the CMAC (Cerebellar Model Articulation Controller) network in realistic applications for complex automated systems (robots, automated vehicles, etc…) is related to the required memory size. It is pertinent to remind that the memory used by CMAC depends firstly on the input signal quantification step and secondly on the input space dimension. For real CMAC based control applications, on the one hand, in order to increase the accuracy of the control the chosen quantification step must be as small as possible; on the other hand, generally the input space dimension is greater than two. In order to overcome the problem relating the memory size, how both the generalization and step quantization parameters may influence the CMAC's approximation quality has been discussed. Our goal is to find an optimal CMAC structure for complex dynamic systems' control. Biped robots and Flight control design for airbreathing hypersonic vehicles are two actual areas of such systems. We have applied the investigated concepts on these two quite different areas. The presented simulation results show that an optimal or sub-optimal structure carrying out a minimal modeling error could be achieved. The choice of an optimal structure allows decreasing the memory size and reducing the computing time as well
5

Experimental Investigations Of Aerothermodynamics Of A Scramjet Engine Configuration

Hima Bindu, V 11 1900 (has links)
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.
6

Contribution to study and implementation of intelligent adaptive control strategies : application to control of complex dynamic systems

Yu, Weiwei 02 March 2011 (has links) (PDF)
The main limitation of the CMAC (Cerebellar Model Articulation Controller) network in realistic applications for complex automated systems (robots, automated vehicles, etc...) is related to the required memory size. It is pertinent to remind that the memory used by CMAC depends firstly on the input signal quantification step and secondly on the input space dimension. For real CMAC based control applications, on the one hand, in order to increase the accuracy of the control the chosen quantification step must be as small as possible; on the other hand, generally the input space dimension is greater than two. In order to overcome the problem relating the memory size, how both the generalization and step quantization parameters may influence the CMAC's approximation quality has been discussed. Our goal is to find an optimal CMAC structure for complex dynamic systems' control. Biped robots and Flight control design for airbreathing hypersonic vehicles are two actual areas of such systems. We have applied the investigated concepts on these two quite different areas. The presented simulation results show that an optimal or sub-optimal structure carrying out a minimal modeling error could be achieved. The choice of an optimal structure allows decreasing the memory size and reducing the computing time as well
7

A Generalized H-Infinity Mixed Sensitivity Convex Approach to Multivariable Control Design Subject to Simultaneous Output and Input Loop-Breaking Specifications

January 2018 (has links)
abstract: In this dissertation, we present a H-infinity based multivariable control design methodology that can be used to systematically address design specifications at distinct feedback loop-breaking points. It is well understood that for multivariable systems, obtaining good/acceptable closed loop properties at one loop-breaking point does not mean the same at another. This is especially true for multivariable systems that are ill-conditioned (having high condition number and/or relative gain array and/or scaled condition number). We analyze the tradeoffs involved in shaping closed loop properties at these distinct loop-breaking points and illustrate through examples the existence of pareto optimal points associated with them. Further, we study the limitations and tradeoffs associated with shaping the properties in the presence of right half plane poles/zeros, limited available bandwidth and peak time-domain constraints. To address the above tradeoffs, we present a methodology for designing multiobjective constrained H-infinity based controllers, called Generalized Mixed Sensitivity (GMS), to effectively and efficiently shape properties at distinct loop-breaking points. The methodology accommodates a broad class of convex frequency- and time-domain design specifications. This is accomplished by exploiting the Youla-Jabr-Bongiorno-Kucera parameterization that transforms the nonlinear problem in the controller to an affine one in the Youla et al. parameter. Basis parameters that result in efficient approximation (using lesser number of basis terms) of the infinite-dimensional parameter are studied. Three state-of-the-art subgradient-based non-differentiable constrained convex optimization solvers, namely Analytic Center Cutting Plane Method (ACCPM), Kelley's CPM and SolvOpt are implemented and compared. The above approach is used to design controllers for and tradeoff between several control properties of longitudinal dynamics of 3-DOF Hypersonic vehicle model -– one that is unstable, non-minimum phase and possesses significant coupling between channels. A hierarchical inner-outer loop control architecture is used to exploit additional feedback information in order to significantly help in making reasonable tradeoffs between properties at distinct loop-breaking points. The methodology is shown to generate very good designs –- designs that would be difficult to obtain without our presented methodology. Critical control tradeoffs associated are studied and compared with other design methods (e.g., classically motivated, standard mixed sensitivity) to further illustrate its power and transparency. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Electrical Engineering 2018
8

Commande d'un véhicule hypersonique à propulsion aérobie : modélisation et synthèse / Control of a hypersonic airbreathing vehicle : modeling and synthesis

Poulain, François 28 March 2012 (has links)
La propulsion aérobie à grande vitesse est depuis longtemps identifiée comme l'un des prochains sauts technologiques à franchir dans le domaine des lanceurs spatiaux. Cependant, les véhicules hypersoniques (HSV) fonctionnant dans des domaines de vitesse extrêmement élevées, de nombreuses contraintes et incertitudes entravent les garanties des propriétés des contrôleurs. L'objet de cette thèse est d'étudier la synthèse de commande d'un tel véhicule.Pour commencer, il s'agit de définir un modèle représentatif d'un HSV exploitable pour la commande. Dans ce travail, nous construisons deux modèles de HSV. Un pour la simulation en boucle fermée, et le second afin de poser précisément le problème de commande.Nous proposons ensuite une synthèse de commande de la dynamique longitudinale dans le plan vertical de symétrie. Celle-ci est robuste aux incertitudes de modélisation, tolérante à des saturations, et n'excite pas les dynamiques rapides négligées. Ses propriétés sont évaluées sur différents cas de simulation. Puis, une extension est proposée afin de résoudre le problème de commande simultanée des dynamiques longitudinale et latérale, sous les mêmes contraintes.Ce résultat est obtenu par une assignation de fonction de Lyapunov, suite à une étude des dynamiques longitudinale et latérale. Par ailleurs, pour traiter les erreurs de poursuite dues aux incertitudes de modélisation, nous nous intéressons au problème de régulation asymptotique robuste par retour d'état. Nous montrons que cette régulation peut être accomplie en stabilisant le système augmenté d'un intégrateur de la sortie. Ceci constitue une extension de la structure de contrôle proportionnel-intégral au cas des systèmes non linéaires. / High speed airbreathing thrust has been known for a long time as one of the next technological step to be overcome in space launchers domain. However, HyperSonic Vehicles (HSV) speed operating ranges being extremely high, numerous constraints and uncertainties restrict the ensuring of control properties. The purpose of this thesis is to study control synthesis for such a vehicle.First, it concern the definition of a HSV model for controlling purpose. In this work is constructed two HSV models. One in order to effect closed loop simulation, and the other in order to precisely establish the control problem.Then, is proposed a control synthesis for the longitudinal dynamics restricted to the symmetric vertical plane. It is robust to modelling uncertainties, allows saturation, and does not excite neglected fast dynamics. Its properties are evaluated on different cases of simulation. Next, an extension is proposed in order to solve the problem of controlling simultaneously longitudinal and lateral dynamics, under the same constraints.This result is obtained by the use of control Lyapunov functions, following the study of longitudinal and lateral dynamics. Furthermore, in order to solve tracking errors due to modelling uncertainties, the problem of robust asymptotic regulation by state feedback has been addressed. It is shown that such a regulation can be achieved by stabilizing the system augmented by an output integrator. This constitutes an extension for nonlinear systems of the proportional-integral control structure.
9

Practical Numerical Trajectory Optimization via Indirect Methods

Sean M. Nolan (5930771) 15 June 2023 (has links)
<p>Numerical trajectory optimization is helpful not only for mission planning but also design</p> <p>space exploration and quantifying vehicle performance. Direct methods for solving the opti-</p> <p>mal control problems, which first discretize the problem before applying necessary conditions</p> <p>of optimality, dominate the field of trajectory optimization because they are easier for the</p> <p>user to set up and are less reliant on a forming a good initial guess. On the other hand,</p> <p>many consider indirect methods, which apply the necessary conditions of optimality prior to</p> <p>discretization, too difficult to use for practical applications. Indirect methods though provide</p> <p>very high quality solutions, easily accessible sensitivity information, and faster convergence</p> <p>given a sufficiently good guess. Those strengths make indirect methods especially well-suited</p> <p>for generating large data sets for system analysis and worth revisiting.</p> <p>Recent advancements in the application of indirect methods have already mitigated many</p> <p>of the often cited issues. Automatic derivation of the necessary conditions with computer</p> <p>algebra systems have eliminated the manual step which was time-intensive and error-prone.</p> <p>Furthermore, regularization techniques have reduced problems which traditionally needed</p> <p>many phases and complex staging, like those with inequality path constraints, to a signifi-</p> <p>cantly easier to handle single arc. Finally, continuation methods can circumvent the small</p> <p>radius of convergence of indirect methods by gradually changing the problem and use previ-</p> <p>ously found solutions for guesses.</p> <p>The new optimal control problem solver Giuseppe incorporates and builds upon these</p> <p>advancements to make indirect methods more accessible and easily used. It seeks to enable</p> <p>greater research and creative approaches to problem solving by being more flexible and</p> <p>extensible than previous solvers. The solver accomplishes this by implementing a modular</p> <p>design with well-defined internal interfaces. Moreover, it allows the user easy access to and</p> <p>manipulation of component objects and functions to be use in the way best suited to solve</p> <p>a problem.</p> <p>A new technique simplifies and automates what was the predominate roadblock to using</p> <p>continuation, the generation of an initial guess for the seed solution. Reliable generation of</p> <p>a guess sufficient for convergence still usually required advanced knowledge optimal contrtheory or sometimes incorporation of an entirely separate optimization method. With the</p> <p>new method, a user only needs to supply initial states, a control profile, and a time-span</p> <p>over which to integrate. The guess generator then produces a guess for the “primal” problem</p> <p>through propagation of the initial value problem. It then estimates the “dual” (adjoint)</p> <p>variables by the Gauss-Newton method for solving the nonlinear least-squares problem. The</p> <p>decoupled approach prevents poorly guessed dual variables from altering the relatively easily</p> <p>guess primal variables. As a result, this method is simpler to use, faster to iterate, and much</p> <p>more reliable than previous guess generation techniques.</p> <p>Leveraging the continuation process also allows for greater insight into the solution space</p> <p>as there is only a small marginal cost to producing an additional nearby solutions. As a</p> <p>result, a user can quickly generate large families of solutions by sweeping parameters and</p> <p>modifying constraints. These families provide much greater insight in the general problem</p> <p>and underlying system than is obtainable with singular point solutions. One can extend</p> <p>these analyses to high-dimensional spaces through construction of compound continuation</p> <p>strategies expressible by directed trees.</p> <p>Lastly, a study into common convergence explicates their causes and recommends mitiga-</p> <p>tion strategies. In this area, the continuation process also serves an important role. Adaptive</p> <p>step-size routines usually suffice to handle common sensitivity issues and scaling constraints</p> <p>is simpler and out-performs scaling parameters directly. Issues arise when a cost functional</p> <p>becomes insensitive to the control, which a small control cost mitigates. The best perfor-</p> <p>mance of the solver requires proper sizing of the smoothing parameters used in regularization</p> <p>methods. An asymptotic increase in the magnitude of adjoint variables indicate approaching</p> <p>a feasibility boundary of the solution space.</p> <p>These techniques for indirect methods greatly facilitate their use and enable the gen-</p> <p>eration of large libraries of high-quality optimal trajectories for complex problems. In the</p> <p>future, these libraries can give a detailed account of vehicle performance throughout its flight</p> <p>envelope, feed higher-level system analyses, or inform real-time control applications.</p>
10

Experimental Investigation Of The Effect Of Nose Cavity On The Aerothermodynamics Of The Missile Shaped Bodies Flying At Hypersonic Mach Numbers

Saravanan, S 05 1900 (has links)
Hypersonic vehicles are exposed to severe heating loads during their flight in the atmosphere. In order to minimize the heating problem, a variety of cooling techniques are presently available for hypersonic blunt bodies. Introduction of a forward-facing cavity in the nose tip of a blunt body configuration of hypersonic vehicle is one of the most simple and attractive methods of reducing the convective heating rates on such a vehicle. In addition to aerodynamic heating, the overall drag force experienced by vehicles flying at hypersonic speeds is predominate due to formation of strong shock waves in the flow. Hence, the effective management of heat transfer rate and aerodynamic drag is a primary element to the success of any hypersonic vehicle design. So, precise information on both aerodynamic forces and heat transfer rates are essential in deciding the performance of the vehicle. In order to address the issue of both forces and heat transfer rates, right kind of measurement techniques must be incorporated in the ground-based testing facilities for such type of body configurations. Impulse facilities are the only devices that can simulate high altitude flight conditions. Uncertainties in test flow conditions of impulse facilities are some of the critical issues that essentially affect the final experimental results. Hence, more reliable and carefully designed experimental techniques/methodologies are needed in impulse facilities for generating experimental data, especially at hypersonic Mach numbers. In view of the above, an experimental program has been initiated to develop novel techniques of measuring both the aerodynamic forces and surface heat transfer rates. In the present investigation, both aerodynamic forces and surface heat transfer rates are measured over the test models at hypersonic Mach numbers in IISc hypersonic shock tunnel HST-2, having an effective test time of 800 s. The aerodynamic coefficients are measured with a miniature type accelerometer based balance system where as platinum thin film sensors are used to measure the convective heat transfer rates over the surface of the test model. An internally mountable accelerometer based balance system (three and six-component) is used for the measurement of aerodynamic forces and moment coefficients acting on the different test models (i.e., blunt cone with after body, blunt cone with after body and frustum, blunt cone with after body-frustum-triangular fins and sharp cone with after body-frustum-triangular fins), flying at free stream Mach numbers of 5.75 and 8 in hypersonic shock tunnel. The main principle of this design is that the model along with the internally mounted accelerometer balance system are supported by rubber bushes and there-by ensuring unrestrained free floating conditions of the model in the test section during the flow duration. In order to get a better performance from the accelerometer balance system, the location of accelerometers plays a vital role during the initial design of the balance. Hence, axi-symmetric finite element modeling (FEM) of the integrated model-balance system for the missile shaped model has been carried out at 0° angle of attack in a flow Mach number of 8. The drag force of a model was determined using commercial package of MSC/NASTRAN and MSC/PATRAN. For test flow duration of 800 s, the neoprene type rubber with Young’s modulus of 3 MPa and material combinations (aluminum and stainless steel material used as the model and balance) were chosen. The simulated drag acceleration (finite element) from the drag accelerometer is compared with recorded acceleration-time history from the accelerometer during the shock tunnel testing. The agreement between the acceleration-time history from finite-element simulation and measured response from the accelerometer is very good within the test flow domain. In order to verify the performance of the balance, tests were carried out on similar standard AGARD model configurations (blunt cone with cylinder and blunt cone with cylinder-frustum) and the results indicated that the measured values match very well with the AGARD model data and theoretically estimated values. Modified Newtonian theory is used to calculate the aerodynamic force coefficient analytically for various angles of attack. Convective surface heat transfer rate measurements are carried out by using vacuum sputtered platinum thin film sensors deposited on ceramic substrate (Macor) inserts which in turn are embedded on the metallic missile shaped body. Investigations are carried out on a model with and without fin configurations in HST-2 at flow Mach number of 5.75 and 8 with a stagnation enthalpy of 2 MJ/kg for zero degree angle of attack. The measured heating rates for the missile shaped body (i.e., with fin configuration) are lower than the predicted stagnation heating rates (Fay-Riddell expression) and the maximum difference is about 8%. These differences may be due to the theoretical values of velocity gradient used in the empirical relation. The experimentally measured values are expressed in terms of normalized heat transfer rates, Stanton numbers and correlated Stanton numbers, compared with the numerically estimated results. From the results, it is inferred that the location of maximum heating occurs at stagnation point which corresponds to zero velocity gradient. The heat-transfer ratio (q1/Qo)remains same in the stagnation zone of the model when the Mach number is increased from 5.75 to 8. At the corners of the blunt cone, the heat transfer rate doesn’t increase (or) fluctuate and the effects are negligible at two different Mach numbers (5.75 and 8). On the basis of equivalent total enthalpy, the heat-transfer rate with fin configuration (i.e., at junction of cylinder and fins) is slightly higher than that of the missile model without fin. Attempts have also been made to evaluate the feasibility of using forward facing cavity as probable technique to reduce the heat transfer rate and to study its effect on aerodynamic coefficients on a 41° apex angle missile shaped body, in hypersonic shock tunnel at a free stream Mach number of 8. The forward-facing circular cavities with two different diameters of 6 and 12 mm are chosen for the present investigations. Experiments are carried out at zero degree angle of attack for heat transfer measurements. About 10-25 % reduction in heat transfer rates is observed with cavity at gauge locations close to stagnation region, whereas the reduction in surface heat transfer rate is between 10-15 % for all other gauge locations (which is slightly downstream of the cavity) compared with the model without cavity. In order to understand the influence of forward facing cavities on force coefficients, measurement of aerodynamic forces and moment coefficients are also carried out on a missile shaped body at angles of attack. The same six component balance is also being used for subsequent investigation of force measurement on a missile shaped body with forward facing cavity. Overall drag reductions of up to 5 % is obtained for a cavity of 6 mm diameter, where as, for the 12 mm cavity an increase in aerodynamic drag is observed (up to about 10%). The addition of cavity resulted in a slight increase in the missile L/D ratio and did not significantly affect the missile lateral components. In summary, the designed balances are found to be suitable for force measurements on different test models in flows of duration less than a millisecond. In order to compliment the experimental results, axi-symmetric, Navier-Stokes CFD computations for the above-defined models are carried out for various angles of attack using a commercial package CFX-Ansys 5.7. The experimental free stream conditions obtained from the shock tunnel are used for the boundary conditions in the CFD simulation. The fundamental aerodynamic coefficients and heat transfer rates of experimental results are shown to be in good agreement with the predicted CFD. In order to have a feeling of the shock structure over test models, flow visualization experiments have been carried out by using the Schlieren technique at flow Mach numbers of 5.75 and 8. The visualized shock wave pattern around the test model consists of a strong bow shock which is spherical in shape and symmetrical over the forebody of the cone. Experimentally measured shock stand-off distance compare well with the computed value as well as the theoretically estimated value using Van Dyke’s theory. These flow visualization experiments have given a factual proof to the quality of flow in the tunnel test section.

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