As a vehicle re-enters the Earth’s atmosphere, it will be travelling at hypersonic speeds through the quiescent atmospheric gas for the majority of its journey. Consequently, a bow shock forms ahead of the vehicle, creating a sudden temperature and pressure increase. The post-shock temperatures are high enough to excite internal energy modes of the gas particles and promote dissociation and...
At end-of-life, satellites must be de-orbited to comply with guidelines laid out by the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee (IADC). Disposal by direct re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere is preferred. The IADC guidelines also state that undue ground risk to people and property must be avoided, and environmental pollution should be minimised. These guidelines are intended to prevent...
Uranus and Neptune, known collectively as the Ice Giants, are the only two planets in the solar system that are yet to be explored with a dedicated mission. Planetary entry probe missions to the Ice Giants were proposed in 2010 by NASA and ESA which prompted a resurgence of interest in experimental simulation of the aeroheating environment that would be encountered by such a spacecraft. The...
Background of the Study
Non-equilibrium phenomena can significantly change the heat transfer and aerodynamic characteristics of hypersonic vehicles. Consequently, the design of vehicles entering planetary atmospheres relies heavily on numerical calculations, and in turn these require accurate estimates of physical quantities such as rate constants and intra-molecular interaction...
ESTHER is a two stage shock-tube. It comprises a 1.6\metre\ length and 200\milli\metre\ diameter combustion driver where He/\ce{H2}/\ce{O2} and \ce{N2}/\ce{H2}/\ce{O2} mixtures are injected by an automated gas filling system at initial pressures up to 100 bars. These mixtures are ignited through a Nd:Yag laser shooting on the back plate through a thick sapphire window, reaching final pressures...
Background of the study
The development of reentry aerodynamic configurations requires examination of surface heat flux. Reentry-relevant freestream conditions are suitably generated by shock tunnels such as the High Enthalpy Shock Tunnel G{\"o}ttingen (HEG). Surface heating due to radiation at high-enthalpy stagnation conditions has been shown to comprise a significant portion of the total...
