Experimental and computational investigation of an electric arc Air-Spike in hypersonic flow with drag measurements

M. Bracken, L. N. Myrabo, H. T. Nagamatsu, E. D. Meloney, M. N. Shneider

Research output: Contribution to conferencePaperpeer-review

Abstract

The effects of an arc discharge to create an Air-Spike in a hypersonic flow are currently being studied in the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 24-inch Hypersonic Shock Tunnel (RPI HST), modeled computationally, and compared to existing theory. The arc is a high current car battery array-driven, 75- kilowatt peak, self-sustaining electrical discharge in a Mach 10, 260 psia stagnation pressure, and 560 K stagnation temperature flow. In this low enthalpy, ideal gas, condition, schlieren photographs are taken of the apparatus with and without a downstream blunt body, with varying arc powers. Blunt body drag measurements are also made with both hanging and sliding models with fast-response accelerometers, with and without the arc to establish a correlation between arc power and body drag. The computational effort employs the Euler gasdynamic equations to represent a heat source in flow conditions and geometries identical to those tested in the RPI HST. These two results are then compared to early Air-Spike theoretical predictions to qualitatively validate the CFD code and gain a better perspective on the loss mechanisms involved in the experiment.

Original languageEnglish (US)
DOIs
StatePublished - 2001
Event37th Joint Propulsion Conference and Exhibit 2001 - Salt Lake City, UT, United States
Duration: Jul 8 2001Jul 11 2001

Other

Other37th Joint Propulsion Conference and Exhibit 2001
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CitySalt Lake City, UT
Period7/8/017/11/01

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Energy Engineering and Power Technology
  • Aerospace Engineering
  • Control and Systems Engineering
  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering
  • Mechanical Engineering

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