Dynamic Aeroheating Measurements on a Cone-Flare Geometry

Results are presented from a proof-of-concept test of a quantitative infrared thermography technique on a wind tunnel undergoing dynamic attitude variation. The present technique utilizes feedback from pitch and yaw encoders within the model positioning system to continuously update camera extrinsic parameters to enable tracking of the model surface. Infrared measurements were obtained at a freestream unit Reynolds number of 6.77×10^6 m^−1 on a 19.2%-scale model of the ROTEX-T flight vehicle in the 20-Inch Mach 6 Air Tunnel at NASA’s Langley Research Center. Yaw-pause, pitch-pause, and continuous yaw sweeps between 0° and 6° angle of attack were tested with varying rates and pause durations to evaluate the limits of the technique. Surface heating rates from move-pause and continuously sweeping runs are shown to be within 10% of static measurements up to a sweep rate of 3° per second.