Air-Breathing Missile Thrust Measurement

Our Phase II program will provide for the design, fabrication, and testing of skin friction gauges and force measurement modules that will operate in a hypersonic scramjet propulsive flowpath with hydrogen/air combustion. Gauges will be installed in the CUBRC Combustion Duct and a test matrix performed to demonstrate operability as well as to provide detailed data for the validation of CFD codes. Detailed CFD simulations of this data will be performed using very advanced turbulence models that predict temperature and species fluctuations which are used to predict variations in turbulent Prandtl and Schmidt number. Net force values for these experiments will be compared based on: (1) use of force balance modules; (2) direct use of experimental surface measurements with specialized interpolation techniques; and, (3) by integration of the pressure and skin friction values predicted by the CFD. The new data sets and accompanying CFD solution data and comparisons will be incorporated in the CRAVE web-based / GUI driven validation tool.