Flexible Software Toolset for Accurate Prediction of High-Speed Wind Tunnel Transient Airloads

Hypersonic testing in wind tunnel facilities is paramount to the successful development of future high-speed vehicles. During the startup and unstart of high-speed wind tunnels or test article insertion in facilities with injection capabilities, the model, instrumentation, and support experience off-design tunnel conditions which present significant transient loads. Current methods for transient airload predictions are based on inaccurate and specific empirical relations or on conservative hand calculations giving loads corresponding to unlikely worst-case scenarios. ATA Engineering proposes to continue development of an extensible and intuitive high-fidelity software toolset to accurately predict transient airloads in high-speed wind tunnels. The proposed Phase II effort will validate the prototype software application and underlying computational methods through correlation with high-speed wind tunnel experimental data. A series of tests will be designed and conducted in AEDC VKF Tunnel D, a hypersonic blowdown facility, to validate the startup and unstart prediction capabilities of the toolset. Injection load predictions will be validated through comparison with concurrent aerothermomechanical tests to be performed in VFK Tunnel C. Greater certainty in transient loads achieved with the resulting validated high-fidelity predictive capability will reduce conservatism in test article design and will extend operational envelopes of high-speed ground test facilities.