Experimental and computational determination of the VKI Plasmatron operating envelope

Bottin, Benoit; Paris, Sébastien; Haegen, V. Van Der; Carbonaro, Mario

doi:10.2514/6.1999-3607

Cited by 25 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…13,14 This high enthalpy wind tunnel is equipped with a high power, high frequency, high voltage (1.2 MW, 400 kHz, 2 kV) solid state generator able to produce, by electromagnetic induction, an air plasma discharge resulting in a jet from a 160 mm torch in a 2.5 m long, 1.4 m diameter test chamber, kept under atmospheric pressure. The probe models holding the TPM samples and the probes for measuring the flow conditions are mounted on water cooled arms that can be swung into and out of the flow by a displacement mechanism.…”

Section: A Plasmatron Facilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Testing of the EXPERT Thermal Protection System Junction in a Plasma Wind Tunnel

Panerai¹,

Chazot²,

Tagliaferri³

et al. 2009

16th AIAA/DLR/DGLR International Space Planes and Hypersonic Systems and Technologies Conference

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The European Space Agency EXPERT vehicle thermal protection system is composed of a ceramic nose and a metallic body skirt, such that a transition in the recombination efficiency occurs when the plasma flow travels across their junction during the reentry phase. In this situation a heat flux jump is experienced between the two materials and has to be carefully handled for a safe vehicle design. Ground experiments in the induction-coupled plasma wind tunnel of the von Karman Institute are performed, in order to simulate this flight phenomenon. Three probe models (low catalytic, high catalytic and combined low-high catalytic) are tested and the temperature distributions over the samples are measured by means of infrared techniques. An experimental proof and a quantification of the transition are provided. Air recombination coefficients for the material studied are determined under typical flight conditions. Nomenclature h = enthalpy per unit mass, J kg -1 m = mass flow rate, kg s -1 P = pressure, Pa P W = power, W q = heat flux, W m -2 R = radius, m T = temperature, T x = surface parallel coordinate, m y = surface normal coordinate, m u = velocity x-component, m s -1 v = velocity y-component, m s -1 r = reflectivity ε = emissivity γ = catalycity β = velocity gradient, s -1 σ = Stefan-Boltzmann constant 5.67 × 10 -8 W m -2 K -4 λ = wavelength, m k = thermal conducivity , W m -1 K -1 J = diffusion flux, kg m -2 s -1 n = number of chemical species Subscript cw = cold wall w = wall s = static d = dynamic p = at constant pressure in = inlet out = outlet e = boundary layer edge f = flight 0 = initial i = chemical species ref = reference cond = conductive c = conductive d = diffusive r = radiative sp = stagnation point Superscript exp = experimental

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Section: A Plasmatron Facilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Plasmatron campaign was performed under test conditions chosen according to the EXPERT trajectory and the facility envelope, 14 in order to obtain enthalpy levels typical for the flight. A chamber static pressure at 10000 Pa and a plasma mass flow of 16 g/s were kept constant during the tests.…”

Section: E Test Matrixmentioning

confidence: 99%

Testing of the EXPERT Thermal Protection System Junction in a Plasma Wind Tunnel

Panerai¹,

Chazot²,

Tagliaferri³

et al. 2009

16th AIAA/DLR/DGLR International Space Planes and Hypersonic Systems and Technologies Conference

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“…Electrode-less inductively coupled plasmas (ICP) are expected to play an important role in the development of the thermal protection system (TPS) for Mars and Venus entry missions [4][5][6][7] . One of the most important features of the ICP is ability to operate under an atmosphere containing oxygen.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Swirl Flow on an Atmospheric Inductively Coupled Plasma

Inoue

Matsui

Takayanagi

et al. 2005

36th AIAA Plasmadynamics and Lasers Conference

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An atmospheric inductively coupled plasma is expected to be used in the development of the thermal protection system for Venus missions. In this study effects of the swirl flow injection on the characteristics of an atmospheric ICP generator were investigated. The total enthalpy was measured by two ways; the sonic flow method and calorimetric method. A diode laser absorption spectroscopy was also applied to the measurement of the temperature and velocity of an extracted plume. The stagnation pressure was about 60 kPa and the work gas was argon. The experimental found that the specific enthalpy increased with decreasing the swirl flow fraction. This seems to arise from the change in the shape and the flow pattern inside the plasmas.

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“…3. Use available probe holders for heat flux measurements and pressure measurements of the plasma flow, details about heat flux and Pitot pressure measurements in the Plasmatron facility can be found in reference 24 .…”

Section: Facility Preparationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The subsonic 1.2MW Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP) torch of the Plasmatron facility at the von Karman Institute (VKI) is able to reproduce the aerothermodynamic environment of atmospheric entry in the stagnation point boundary layer of a test object for a wide range of pressures and heat fluxes [23][24][25] . An extensive numerical rebuilding procedure offers a detailed characterization of the boundary layer and extrapolation of ground-test data to real re-entry flight conditions based on the Local Heat Transfer Simulation (LHTS) concept 26,27 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Emission Spectroscopic Boundary Layer Investigation during Ablative Material Testing in Plasmatron

Helber

Chazot

Hubin

et al. 2016

JoVE

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Ablative Thermal Protection Systems (TPS) allowed the first humans to safely return to Earth from the moon and are still considered as the only solution for future high-speed reentry missions. But despite the advancements made since Apollo, heat flux prediction remains an imperfect science and engineers resort to safety factors to determine the TPS thickness. This goes at the expense of embarked payload, hampering, for example, sample return missions.Ground testing in plasma wind-tunnels is currently the only affordable possibility for both material qualification and validation of material response codes. The subsonic 1.2MW Inductively Coupled Plasmatron facility at the von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics is able to reproduce a wide range of reentry environments. This protocol describes a procedure for the study of the gas/surface interaction on ablative materials in high enthalpy flows and presents sample results of a non-pyrolyzing, ablating carbon fiber precursor. With this publication, the authors envisage the definition of a standard procedure, facilitating comparison with other laboratories and contributing to ongoing efforts to improve heat shield reliability and reduce design uncertainties.The described core techniques are non-intrusive methods to track the material recession with a high-speed camera along with the chemistry in the reactive boundary layer, probed by emission spectroscopy. Although optical emission spectroscopy is limited to line-of-sight measurements and is further constrained to electronically excited atoms and molecules, its simplicity and broad applicability still make it the technique of choice for analysis of the reactive boundary layer. Recession of the ablating sample further requires that the distance of the measurement location with respect to the surface is known at all times during the experiment. Calibration of the optical system of the applied three spectrometers allowed quantitative comparison. At the fiber scale, results from a post-test microscopy analysis are presented.

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Experimental and computational determination of the VKI Plasmatron operating envelope

Cited by 25 publications

References 10 publications

Testing of the EXPERT Thermal Protection System Junction in a Plasma Wind Tunnel

Testing of the EXPERT Thermal Protection System Junction in a Plasma Wind Tunnel

Effects of Swirl Flow on an Atmospheric Inductively Coupled Plasma

Emission Spectroscopic Boundary Layer Investigation during Ablative Material Testing in Plasmatron

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