Application of Particle Image Velocimetry to High-Speed Supersonic Flows in a Shock Tunnel
Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) has become an important tool in modern flowfield diagnostics, in particular for subsonic flows. PIV systems have also been used to measure supersonic flows in supersonic wind tunnels, but only recently it has been shown that PIV can also be a valuable tool for high-speed supersonic flows in a shock tunnel (Haertig et al., 2001). At the ISL shock tunnel a PIV system was installed and tested (Fig. 1). A shock tunnel is a transient wind-tunnel facility with short testing times of a few milliseconds and high supersonic flow velocities in the km/s range. The short flow duration time makes a high information density highly desirable. An application of PIV to such kind of flows is considerably more difficult than to a continuous flows, however, because no online adjustments of the particle seeding and the optics can be done. In this publication, PIV measurement results obtained for flows at Mach numbers of 4.5 and 6 with velocities of up to 1.8 km/s are presented. We measured the freestream flow of nozzles, supersonic wedge flows with an attached shock wave, and the supersonic flow around a sphere with a detached shock wave. To obtain a good spatial resolution a laser pulse separation of less than 0.5 μs is necessary. Solid particles (TiO2 and Al2O3) with a nominal diameter of about 0.3 μm were used for the seeding. The measured particle relaxation across shock waves was found to be consistent with theoretical estimations. Because of the strong particle density gradients in shock waves, the PIV correlation algorithm can contribute to considerable inaccuracies, however. Fig. 1. ISL shock-tunnel facility with PIV system.
Particle Image Velocimetry in Mach 3.5 and 4.5 Shock-Tunnel Flows
For the e rst time, a particle image velocimetry (PIV) system was used to study high-Mach-number e ows in a shock-tunnel facility with velocities of more than 1.5 km/s and measuring times in the millisecond range. An application of PIV to such a transient high-speed e ow is considerably more dife cult than to a continuous e ow because no online adjustments of the optics and the particle seeding can be done. Additionally, a proper seeding and timingofthefacility iscrucial.Firstwewilldiscussthemeasured velocity e eldbehind acontoured Lavalnozzle (design Mach number4.5 ). The measurement data show that thee owe eld at the nozzleexit is parallel to the nozzle axis and homogeneous as expected from supersonic nozzle theory. The average measured velocity corresponds very well to the calculated e ow velocity. The results are compared to measurements made with a conical Mach 3.5 nozzle that exhibits a diverging e owe eld. A wedge was further introduced into the parallel Mach 4.5 nozzle e ow to study the seed particle performance downstream of an oblique shock. The measured results are also in good agreement with calculated velocities from oblique shock theory. PIV has, therefore, proven to be an efe cient measurement method for high-speed and short-duration simulation facilities.
Interior ballistics of a two-stage light gas gun using velocity interferometry
An extensive interior ballistics study of a two-stage light gas gun was performed which resulted in a detailed measurement of the projectile velocity as a continuous function of time. The two-stage gun consisted of a 88.9-mm i.d. pump stage and a 28.6-mm i.d. launch stage. Five main parameters of gun operation, propellant mass, piston mass, pump gas, pump gas pressure, and projectile mass were varied in this study. Projectile velocities were measured using a very precise velocity interferometer for any reflecting surface (VISAR) technique. The measurements showed that the initial acceleration of the projectile is discontinuous due to the shock nature of the applied pressure on the projectile upon rupture of the burst diaphragm. These shock accelerations are understood easily via simple shock-tube theory. 9 figures, 3 tables.