Visualization of Shock Waves around Hypersonic Spiked Blunt Cones Using Electric Discharge

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Viren, M. | Jagadeesh, G. | Reddy, K. P. J. | Sun, M. | Takayama, K.

Affiliations: Interdisciplinary Shock Wave Research Center, Institute of Fluid Science, Tohoku University, Sendai, 980-8577, Japan. E-mail: [email protected] | Department of Aerospace Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, 560-012, India

Abstract: The hypersonic flow fields around a 120° apex angle blunt cone fitted with spikes have been visualized using electric discharge technique at Mach 5.75 in a hypersonic shock tunnel. The blunt cone has been fitted with a flat tipped spike and a flat aerodisc tipped spike assembly. The length of the aerodisc tipped spike assembly has been kept equal to the model base diameter (L/D=1) and the length of the flat tipped spike has been kept at 12mm. The flow field pictures reveal all the salient features of the flow fields around the spiked bodies. Numerical simulations carried out to complement the experiments agree well with the experimental pictures.

Keywords: Visualization, Electric discharge, Spiked blunt cone, Hypersonic shock tunnel

Journal: Journal of Visualization, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 65-72, 2005