Fiber optic sensing technologies potentially applicable for hypersonic wind tunnel harsh environments

Advanced sensing techniques are in big demand for applications in hypersonic wind tunnel harsh environments,such as aero(thermo)dynamics measurements,thermal protection of aircraft structures,air-breathing propulsion,light-weighted and highstrength materials,etc.In comparison with traditional electromechanical or electronic sensors,the fiber optic sensors have relatively high potential to work in hypersonic wind tunnel,due to the capability of responding to a wide variety of parameters,high resolution,miniature size,high resistant to electromagnetic and radio frequency interferences,and multiplexing,and so on.This article has classified and summarized the research status and the representative achievement on the fiber optic sensing technologies,giving special attention to the summary of research status on the popular Fabry-Perot interferometric,fiber Bragg gratings and(quasi)distributed fiber optic sensors working in hypersonic wind tunnel environment,and discussed the current problems in special optical fiber sensing technologies.This article would be regarded as reference for the researchers in hypersonic wind tunnel experiment field.

Advances in critical technologies for hypersonic and high-enthalpy wind tunnel

Hypersonic and high-enthalpy wind tunnels and their measurement techniques are the cornerstone of the hypersonic flight era that is a dream for human beings to fly faster,higher and further.The great progress has been achieved during the recent years and their critical technologies are still in an urgent need for further development.There are at least four kinds of hypersonic and high-enthalpy wind tunnels that are widely applied over the world and can be classified according to their operation modes.These wind tunnels are named as air-directly-heated hypersonic wind tunnel,light-gas-heated shock tunnel,free-piston-driven shock tunnel and detonation-driven shock tunnel,respectively.The critical technologies for developing the wind tunnels are introduced in this paper,and their merits and weakness are discussed based on wind tunnel performance evaluation.Measurement techniques especially developed for high-enthalpy flows are a part of the hypersonic wind tunnel technology because the flow is a chemically reacting gas motion and its diagnosis needs specially designed instruments.Three kinds of the measurement techniques considered to be of primary importance are introduced here,including the heat flux sensor,the aerodynamic balance,and optical diagnosis techniques.The techniques are developed usually for conventional wind tunnels,but further improved for hypersonic and high-enthalpy tunnels.The hypersonic ground test facilities have provided us with most of valuable experimental data on high-enthalpy flows and will play a more important role in hypersonic research area in the future.Therefore,several prospects for developing hypersonic and high-enthalpy wind tunnels are presented from our point of view.

High frequency AC electric glow discharge visualization technology and application in big diameter hypersonic low-density wind tunnel

In order to visualize the rarefied flow field in aΦ1m hypersonic low-density wind tunnel,an electric glow discharge technique based on high frequency excited power has been developed.Firstly,finite element simulation analysis has been carried out,and it is concluded that the breakdown voltage can be reduced by using high frequency power supply;then an electric glow discharge apparatus has been fabricated,and the discharge images were compared with simulations;besides,a clear flow field around HB-1 standard model has been observed using this technology;finally,the influence of glow discharge on the flow field,as well as the differences between direct current and high frequency electric glow discharges is discussed at the end of this paper.

Theories and methods for designing hypersonic high-enthalpy flow nozzles

Hypersonic high-enthalpy wind tunnels have been a challenge to ground tests in aerospace research area for decades and its test flow uniformity is one of the most important parameters for evaluating wind tunnel performances.Regarding to the performance requirement,theories and methods for designing hypersonic flow nozzles at high enthalpy conditions are quite difficult,but very interesting topics,especially when air molecule dissociations take place in wind tunnel test gas reservoirs.In this paper,fundamental theories and important methods for nozzle designs are briefly reviewed with the emphasis on two-dimensional axisymmetric nozzles for hypersonic high-enthalpy wind tunnels,including the Method of Characteristics(MOC),the graphic design method,the Sivells method,the theory for boundary correction,and the CFD-based design optimization methods.These theories and methods had been proposed based on several physical issues,respectively,which play important roles in nozzle flow expansion processes.These issues cover the expansion wave generation and reflection,the boundary layer development,the real gas effect of hypersonic high-enthalpy flows.Difficulties arising from applications of these methods in hypersonic high-enthalpy nozzle design are discussed in detail and the state of the art of the nozzle design technologies that have reached for decades is summarized with some brief comments.Finally,the prospect for the hypersonic nozzle design methods,and its numerical and experimental verifications are provided with from authors’viewpoint for readers’reference.