Summary

Description

Large amplitude, unsteady heating loads and steep flow gradients produced in regions of shock-wave/turbulent boundary-layer interaction (SWTBLI) pose a serious and challenging problem for designers of hypersonic vehicles. Characterizing SWTBLI flow features, such as the size of flow separation, is important for design evaluation and CFD validation. Tao Systems and CUBRC propose to develop a wide-bandwidth, thin-film heat transfer sensor system that quantifies the high frequency SWTBLI at duplicated flight conditions. This effort combines Tao Systems' high frequency-response/high-sensitivity electronics and signal processing techniques with the unique expertise of CUBRC in high-speed, high-enthalpy flows to obtain spatiotemporal information for the development of physics-based turbulence models.