Experimental investigations on the effect of energy deposition in hypersonic blunt body flow field

Abstract

We describe here an experimental study on the effect of energy deposition in the flow field of a 120° blunt cone, carried out in a hypersonic shock tunnel. The energy deposition is realised using an electric arc discharge generated between two electrodes placed in the free stream, and various parameters influencing the effectiveness of this technique is studied. The experimental observations suggest that the location of energy deposition has a vital role in dictating the flow structure, with no noticeable effects being produced on the flow field when the discharge was located close to the body (0.416 times body diameter). In addition, the nature of the test gas and the free stream density are also identified as important parameters. In these experiments, a maximum drag reduction of ~50% and ~84% reduction in stagnation point heating rate has been observed as a result of energy addition. The experimental evidence also indicates that the relaxation of the internal degrees of freedom plays a major role in the alteration of the hypersonic blunt body flow structure and that under the specific conditions encountered in our experiments, the energy deposition is not strong enough to create a shock on its own, but the heated region behind the energy source interacts with the blunt body shock resulting in the flow field alteration.