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Integration and Evaluation of Unsteady Temperature Gages for Heat Flux Determination in High Speed Flows

This study documents the integration and testing of a new variety of unsteady surface temperature gages designed to operate in high speed flow. Heat flux through the surface of the test article was determined from the unsteady temperature by applying a 3D reconstruction algorithm based on a Green's function approach. The surface temperature gages used in this work were 1.59 mm inserts designed to maximize material matching with the test article, in this case 316 stainless steel. A series of benchtop experiments were first performed to understand the individual properties of the gage and determine measurement uncertainty. Prior to testing, all temperature gages are calibrated using an environmental chamber. Gages were installed into slugs of several materials and subjected to a heated jet with a total temperature of 620 K to examine the effects of material mismatch. A shock tube with a notional operating Mach of 2.6 was used to determine the thermal response of the gages as a function of time. In both tests, reference Medtherm Schmidt-Boelter gages ensure consistent heat fluxes are applied across all runs. The time response of the entire electrical system was determined by subjecting the gage to a nanosecond scale laser pulse. Two experimental campaigns were conducted in Virginia Tech's Hypersonic Wind Tunnel. First, gages were integrated into a flat plate test article and subjected to a notionally 2D Mach 3 flow. Tunnel total pressures and temperatures ranged from 793-876 kPa and 493-594 K, respectively. A reference 3.18 mm Medtherm Schmidt-Boelter gage was also installed for comparison. All temperature data are reconstructed using the algorithm to determine heat flux. The second test campaign utilized a flat-faced cylindrical test article in a notionally axisymmetric Mach 6 flow environment. Flow total pressures and temperatures ranged from 8375-8928 kPa and 485.5-622 K. respectively. The Fay-Riddell analytical method was applied to the resulting temperature traces in order to infer the heat flux at the stagnation point for comparison with the reconstructed heat flux. This experiment was complimented with steady, 3D CFD in order to understand the temperature variation across the test article. Both campaigns demonstrate good agreement between the heat flux reconstructed from surface temperatures measured using the new gage, reference measurements, and simulations/analytical methods. The importance of material matching is highlighted during this study. The performance of this gage is shown to exceed the current state-of-the-art, opening the possibility for future analysis of phenomenon present in high-speed flow. / Doctor of Philosophy / At very fast speeds, it is important to understand how the temperatures of surfaces change with time. Traditional devices which can measure surface temperatures have a number of weaknesses, and to address these a new type of surface temperature device has been designed. By using computational methods, one can determine how much energy is being transferred through the surface by measuring how the surface temperature changes over time. A series of laboratory experiments were conducted to understand how this new instrument compares to the current state-of-the-art. Two experimental campaigns were then conducted to test the temperature gages. The first experiment used a simple flat plate geometry in a flow 3 times the speed of sound to serve as a benchmark test case, as the flow over a flat plate is well understood. The second test utilized a flat-faced cylindrical test article in a flow 6 times the speed of sound. The results of this test was compared to exact solutions and flow simulations. The result of this study is a well quantified tool to study how energy flows through a body subjected to very high speed flow, which will enable further study of the complicated thermal environments experienced at high speeds.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/110874
Date22 June 2022
CreatorsRuda, Mathew Louis
ContributorsAerospace and Ocean Engineering, Schetz, Joseph A., Adams, Colin, Lowe, Kevin T., Massa, Luca
PublisherVirginia Tech
Source SetsVirginia Tech Theses and Dissertation
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeDissertation
FormatETD, application/pdf
RightsIn Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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