Real gas effects on flows over rearward-facing steps in high enthalpy flows

Abstract

The University of Queensland has several test facilities (T4, X2, X3) capable of conducting tests over a large range of flow enthalpies. In the hypersonic limit, the parameters that must be matched to correlate the heat transfer distributions downstream of the step are the hypersonic viscous interaction parameter $\bar V^* _{\infty L}$, the hypersonic small disturbance parameter M_{∞ τ}, and the Damköhler number, Ω. Matching $\bar V^* _{\infty L}$ and M_{∞ τ} the Damköhler number was varied between two flow conditions with enthalpies of 5.6 MJ/kg and 26.0 MJ/kg. This was done in order to determine what differences existed between the measured heat transfer rates at the two enthalpies. The results indicated, that even though the Damköhler numbers varied between the two flow conditions, the flows remained chemically frozen, with the heat transfer distributions agreeing to within experimental uncertainty.