Experimental study of forward-facing cavity with energy deposition in hypersonic flow conditions

Controlling nose surface peak heat fluxes is crucial to the design of hypersonic vehicles. In this study, we report a novel technique of convective heat flux reduction on the nose surface of a spherically blunted cone by employing a forward-facing cavity combined with heat energy deposition inside the cavity. The heat deposition is achieved by the exothermic reaction of a chromium film coated on the cavity surface. The experiments are performed in hypersonic shock tunnels using air as the test gas at free stream stagnation enthalpy conditions of 2.2 ± 0.08 MJ/kg (H1), 3.2 ± 0.018 MJ/kg (H2), and 5.4 ± 0.02 MJ/kg (H3), for a geometry of cavity length to diameter ratio of 1. Schlieren images of the flow are captured using a high-speed camera and a high-power pulsed diode laser light source. The surface heat flux measurements were performed using calibrated platinum thin film sensors. We observed that the heat deposition altered the cavity flow field significantly by lowering the flow oscillation frequency and increasing the shock standoff distances with higher oscillation amplitudes. The overall surface mean heat flux reduction is increased from ≈13% to ≈49% compared to the blunt body geometry, whose nose radius is 30 mm and enhanced with reference to the cavity without heat deposition from ≈15% to ≈35%. Chromium film surface reactions are studied using X-ray Photoelectron spectroscopy, and the results confirm that the exothermic surface reactions of the Cr thin film are attributed to the formation of oxides and nitrides of Cr.