Experimental Assessment of a Flush Air Data Sensing System for the Hypersonic Flight Experiment HEXAFLY-INT

Abstract

In the frame of the HEXAFLY-INT project [5, 6] a Flush Air Data Sensing system (FADS) was design to determine the flight angles, Mach number and altitude of a hypersonic waverider. Within this study an extensive experimental study was performed of a 2:1 nose model in the supersonic (TMK) and hypersonic (H2K) wind tunnel at the DLR in Cologne to evaluate this concept. Main focus was set on pressure measurements for various angles of attacks and sideslip as well as different Mach numbers and Reynolds numbers along the expected trajectory of the flight vehicle. Additional understanding about the flow around the nose of the vehicle was obtained by using schlieren imaging and oil film visualization. A comparison between analytic and numeric predictions from the design study and the measured data during this study show a good agreement and proofed the feasibility of the FADS design for wind tunnels and give confidence for the use under real flight conditions. This study concludes with an assessment on how to improve the FADS algorithms by using wind tunnel data.