An experimental investigation of hypersonic stagnation temperature probes

Citation

Wood, Richard D. (1959) An experimental investigation of hypersonic stagnation temperature probes. Engineer's thesis, California Institute of Technology. http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechETD:etd-02082006-130736

Abstract

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An experimental investigation of single-shielded hypersonic stagnation temperature probes was conducted in the GALCIT Leg No.1 hypersonic wind tunnel and in the Jet Propulsion Laboratory 12-inch supersonic wind tunnel.

By the combined use of both shield and base heating, a probe recovery factor of r = 1.0 was obtained over a range of Reynolds numbers at M [...] = 5.75. By using the experimental data and simple heat balance equations, the probe losses, for the conditions investigated, were found to be in the proportion: shield conduction loss - 15; base conduction loss - 3; thermocouple conduction loss - 1; thermocouple radiation loss - 3/100. The typical decrease in probe recovery factor observed for decreasing Reynolds number appears to be related to a decrease in the base temperature and not to the wire conduction loss as commonly assumed.

An optimum probe vent to entrance area ratio of [...] was found and is shown to be a function of the number of vent holes used in the shield.

No single calibration parameter was found that could relate the experimental recovery factors under all conditions.

Thesis Files