Porous Materials as a Thermal Protection System for Hypersonic Flight Vehicles

Porous Materials as a Thermal Protection System for Hypersonic Flight Vehicles

Presenter(s)

Megan Colleen Sieve

Comments

Presentation: 1:00-1:20, Kennedy Union 310

Description

Hypersonic flight is defined as speeds of Mach 5 and faster. A critical problem that arises at those speeds is the immense heating of the vehicle. Hypersonic vehicles have thermal protection systems (TPS) to aid in thermal regulation; however, as faster speeds require large TPS, a design concern is how to make the TPS so to not cause any harm to the vehicle’s performance. This research project will investigate the most prominent instability that causes turbulence, and consequently, heat, on a flat-plate at Mach numbers of 4 and above: the second-mode boundary-layer instability. Different porous materials have been shown to dampen acoustic waves, which are the cause of second-mode boundary layer instabilities and is the focus of this study. This project is a continuation of the study “Effect of Porosity on the Ability of Silicon-Carbide Foams to Attenuate the Second-Mode Boundary-Layer Instability” (Bemis et al.). Experimental techniques used were PCB pressure sensors, Schlieren imaging, infrared thermography, and Rayleigh scattering. Silicon-carbide porous foams, wavy wall samples, and impermeable samples were tested on two different sized flat plates. The goals of these experiments were to study boundary-layer transition and the effect that different porous materials had on the boundary-layer.

Publication Date

4-17-2024

Project Designation

Honors Thesis

Primary Advisor

Carson L. Running

Primary Advisor's Department

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Keywords

Stander Symposium, School of Engineering

Institutional Learning Goals

Scholarship

Porous Materials as a Thermal Protection System for Hypersonic Flight Vehicles

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