Hypersonic nozzle-afterbody experiment: Flowfield surveys

This study was conducted to characterize experimentally the flowfield created by the interaction of a single-expansion-ramp nozzle flow with a hypersonic external stream, Data were obtained from a generic nozzle-afterbody model in the 3,5-Ft Hypersonic Wind Tunnel of the NASA Ames Research Center in a cooperative experimental program involving NASA Ames and McDonnell Douglas Corporation, The model design and test planning were performed in close cooperation with members of the Ames computational fluid dynamics team for the National Aero-Space Plane program, Experimental results are presented, consisting primarily of flowfield surveys with five-hole and thermocouple probes, The probe data consist of impact-pressure, Bow-direction, and stagnation-temperature profiles in the interaction flowfield. The impact-pressure distributions are complex, as a result of multiple shock waves and the large differences in both reservoir pressure and temperature between the jet and the external flow, The thermocouple-probe surveys give a clear indication of the shear layer between the jet and the external flow, Cross-section views of shock-wave and shear-layer locations constructed from the probe data show that the flow is highly three-dimensional throughout the region of investigation.