Keywords

Shock Tubes, Impinged Flow, Sting Articles

Abstract

Shock tubes offer a uniform, highly controllable, repeatable test environments to simulate combustion, atmospheric re-entry, and supersonic and hypersonic flow phenomena. These devices offer limited test times which are commonly employed for study in the high pressure, high temperature reflected region or studying the incidentally shocked region which may feature relatively low pressures. This work expands the traditional use of a shock tube by purposely impinging the uniform flow field with a symmetrical article, demonstrating the facility’s versatility. The article is suspended at the center of the shock tube approximately 1 meter upstream. A classical Schlieren imaging setup examined flow near Mach 3-4 where a faint bow shock formed at the tip; at the center of the article complex interactions of flow structures including reflected pressure waves, expansion fans, internal cavity reflections, and bifurcation structures forming along the model surface were observed. Subsequent experiments employed laser thermometry and Doppler velocimetry to measure the local flow effects onto temperatures near 750–1,950 K and velocities near 1,800-2,900 m/s. A dynamic pressure transducer placed just upstream of the test article location served to define the instance of shock wave arrival into the test section. Laser computed data was directly compared to normal shock, thermodynamically equilibrium calculations – the laser measurements observed saw increased temperature and decreased velocity comparative to the equilibrium equations, a finding consistent with the presence of reflected pressure waves and weak, non-planar shock structures near the probing point. RSS and MCS error calculations were performed for laser measurements and demonstrated a high degree of confidence in literature derived parameters at lower temperatures and corresponding velocities, with uncertainty bounds growing at higher conditions.

Completion Date

2026

Semester

Spring

Committee Chair

Subith Vasu

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

College

College of Engineering and Computer Science

Department

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Format

PDF

Document Type

Dissertation

Identifier

DP0053289

Release Date

5-15-2027

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Available for download on Saturday, May 15, 2027

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