Development of a Global Heat Transfer Measurement System at AEDC Hypervelocity Wind Tunnel 9

Heat-transfer rates are an extremely important consideration in the design of hypersonic vehicles such as atmospheric reentry vehicles. This paper describes the development of a data reduction methodology to evaluate heat-transfer rates using global surface temperature measurements on wind tunnel models at the Arnold Engineering Development Center (AEDC) White Oak´s Hypervelocity Wind Tunnel 9. As a part of this development effort, a scale model of the NASA Crew Exploration Vehicle was painted with temperature-sensitive paint (TSP), and multiple sequences of high-resolution images were acquired during a five-run test program. The calculation of heat-transfer rates from TSP data acquired in Tunnel 9 is challenging because of high Reynolds number and dynamic pressure environments and the desire to use standard stainless steel wind tunnel models that were originally designed for force and moment testing. The authors developed an approach to reduce TSP data into convective heat flux while taking into consideration the challenges listed above. A preliminary comparison of the heat flux value calculated using the TSP surface temperature data with the value calculated using the standard thermocouple data is reported.