CUBRC 48” Tunnel Hypersonic Ground Testing of NOSpec

Active control of hypersonic vehicles is a current area of research and development. Measurement of external flows around these vehicles can potentially be used as feedback for a control algorithm. To this end, a novel optical emission spectroscopy (OES) sensor called NOSpec was tested in the CUBRC LENS 48-inch reflected shock tunnel. NOSpec is a fiber coupled sensor utilizing a multi-anode photomultiplier tube array (MAPMT) as the detector to examine the external flow over a hypersonic vehicle. A blunt wedge with rounded corners and 10º half angle was used as the flight vehicle geometry for testing with a window placed on the blunt edge and a fiber collimator behind the window. These tests detected a noticeable change in NO signal from 0º angle of attack to 10º or 20º angle of attack while collecting information about the flow field. This work demonstrates the feasibility of the novel sensor architecture to non-intrusively detect changes in angle of attack, and it may be applied in the future for hypersonic vehicle active control.