10.2514/6.2026-5068">
 

Experimental Analysis of Chemically Reacting Wakes for Ballistic Spheres at Mach 10 Flight Conditions

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

7-7-2026

Abstract

The reacting hypersonic wake data for two 25mm spheres at Mach 10.5 fired from Southwest Research Institute’s two-stage light gas gun is presented and analyzed. The spheres were shot through a manufactured mixture of air comprised of 79% N2 and 21% O2 at a stagnation enthalpy of 6.5 MJ/kg and a stagnation pressure of 40 torr, conditions that correspond to 20km altitude. The duration of the experiment was 53 body diameters behind the sphere, which was limited by the length of the ballistic range. High-speed schlieren imaging and measurements of molar Nitric Oxide using Planar Laser Induced Fluorescence are analyzed and presented. For these experiments, flow along the spheres remained laminar while the wake transitioned at a distance of 1.16 to 1.22 body diameters behind the spheres. The maximum concentration of Nitric Oxide in the wake occurred in the early turbulent wake region and was measured between 6.6 and 10.4%. Large-scale wake turbulence was not observed until 8.9 body diameters behind the sphere. The quantitative results observed were very sensitive to the initial and freestream conditions. These experiments provide valuable reference data for more modern experimental wake studies and provide a data set for reacting wake turbulence model calibration.

Comments

The full conference paper is available from AIAA via subscription or purchase, using the DOI link below.

Session: Experimental Methods II

Source Publication

27th AIAA International Space Planes and Hypersonic Systems and Technologies Conference, 7-10 July 2026, Naples, Italy

This document is currently not available here.

Share

COinS