| Objective: | Develop diagnostic capability for the nonintrusive dynamic measurement of local flowfield parameters in high-speed flight research experiments.
| Description: | While ground test and numerical simulation provide the scientific foundation for the development of essential technologies for high-speed flight, ground test cannot be accomplished at flight conditions and numerical simulations require validation data. Thus, the extrapolation and scaling of both methods to flight conditions is a pervasive scientific challenge. To address this issue, several federal agencies have developed flight research programs to complement and provide critical guidance to ground test and computational efforts. An essential element of these flight research programs is the desire to collect extensive time- and spatially-resolved measurements of critical aerothermodynamic phenomena during the flight experiment. Unfortunately, surface-based measurements alone do not provide sufficient insight into the complex flowfield to allow unambiguous conclusions to be drawn from the flight data. The capability to dynamically measure off-body flow parameters would add an exciting new dimension to the suite of measurements currently employed in flight research programs.
Contributions are sought to transform the state of the art in the dynamic measurement of fluctuating flowfield parameters in flight. Novel methods that provide nonintrusive, spatially- and temporally-resolved measurements either in the off-body flow near the surface of the vehicle or in the freestream are strongly encouraged. Offerings substantially based on analytical or computational approaches to the problem will be considered nonresponsive.
Research areas of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Measurement of freestream fluctuations in the flow upstream of a flight research vehicle.
- Development of non-intrusive techniques for off-body measurements in the local flowfield.
- Integration and demonstration in a small scale flight experiment.
| | PHASE I: Identify and determine feasibility of novel method for the time-accurate measurement of off-body flow parameters. Demonstrate proof-of-concept in a laboratory scale experiment.
| | PHASE II: Develop, demonstrate and evaluate a prototype capability based on Phase I approach. Integrate and demonstrate capability in small scale flight demonstration.
| | PHASE III
| | DUAL USE COMMERCIALIZATION:
Military Application: Enhanced ability to measure flow environment will facilitate in-flight optimization of resource-intensive flight tests.
Commercial Application: Knowledge and diagnostic capabilities derived from this effort should be of considerable benefit to the commercial space launch enterprise.
| References: | 1. Dolvin, D., “Hypersonic International Flight Research and Experimentation Technology Development and Flight Certification Strategy", AIAA-2009-7228 16th AIAA/DLR/DGLR International Space Planes and Hypersonic Systems and Technologies Conference, Bremen, Germany, Oct. 19-22, 2009
2. Adamczak, D. Alesi, H. and Frost, M, “HIFiRE-1: Payload Design, Manufacture, Ground Test, and Lessons Learned”, AIAA-2009-7294 , 16th AIAA/DLR/DGLR International Space Planes and Hypersonic Systems and Technologies Conference, Bremen, Germany, Oct. 19-22, 2009
| | Keywords: | non-intrusive diagnostics, flight research, hypersonic aerothermodynamics |