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Numerical study of free-piston shock tunnel performance

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Abstract

A free-piston shock tunnel (FPST) is one of the most useful ground testing facilities for hypervelocity flow research of re-entry vehicles and scramjet engines. For an efficient operation with tuned piston motion, the design of facility and the comprehension of the physical phenomena in a FPST, a numerical simulation which can properly predicts the flow with actual losses is required. But there are few successful numerical methods which can simulate its overall performance. In the present study, numerical method was developed by using the KRC shock capturing scheme and by modeling the flow losses in suitable forms for a quasi-1D numerical computation. The present numerical results were compared with the data obtained in two different facilities, T4 and T5. The applicability of the present numerical method as a design tool is discussed briefly.

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Abbreviations

A :

Area

C p :

Specific heat at constant pressure

C f :

Skin friction coefficient

L :

Length

M :

Mach number

N :

Nusselt number

P :

Pressure

P r :

Prandtl number

q :

Heat flux per unit area

Re :

Reynolds number

T :

Temperature

u :

Velocity

γ:

Specific heat ratio

δ :

Boundary layer thickness

κ :

Thermal conductivity

λ:

Volumetric compression ratio

μ :

Viscosity

ρ :

Density

τ :

Shear stress

C:

Compression tube

d:

Downstream of the shock wave

m:

Maximum value

r:

Recovery

R:

Secondary reservoir

s:

Shock wave

S:

Shock tube

th:

Throat

w:

Wall

References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Aerospace Laboratory, Kakuda Research Center, Kakuda, 981-15, Miyagi, Japan

    K. Tani, K. Itoh, M. Takahashi, H. Tanno, T. Komuro & H. Miyajima

Authors
  1. K. Tani
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  2. K. Itoh
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  3. M. Takahashi
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  4. H. Tanno
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  5. T. Komuro
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  6. H. Miyajima
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This article was processed using Springer-Verlag TEX Shock Waves macro package 1.0 and the AMS fonts, developed by the American Mathematical Society.

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Tani, K., Itoh, K., Takahashi, M. et al. Numerical study of free-piston shock tunnel performance. Shock Waves 3, 313–319 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01415829

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01415829

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