Hot-wire Measurements in Low Reynolds Number Hypersonic Flows

Measurements were made of the heat loss and recovery temperature of a fine hot-wire at a nominal Mach number of 5.8. Data were obtained over an eight-fold range of Reynolds numbers in the transitional regime between continuum and free-molecule flow. At high Reynolds numbers, the heat transfer data agree well with the results of Laufer and McClellan, which were obtained at lower Mach numbers. At lower Reynolds numbers, the results indicate a monotonic transition between continuum and free molecule heat transfer laws. The slope of the heat transfer correlation also appears to vary monotonically, with Nu=√Re at high Reynolds numbers and Nu ~ Re for Re < < 1. Data on the wire recovery temperature (corresponding to zero net heat transfer) were obtained for free-stream Knudsen numbers between 0.4 and 3.0. Comparison with previous data suggests that for Mach numbers greater than about two the normalized variation of recovery temperature in the transitional regime is a unique function of the free-stream Knudsen number. The steady-state hot-wire may be used to obtain two thermodynamic measurements: the rate of heat transfer from the wire and the wire recovery temperature. An illustrative experiment was performed in the wake of a transverse cylinder, using both hot-wire and pressure instruments in a redundant system of measurements. It was shown that good accuracy may be obtained with a hot-wire even when the Reynolds number based on wire diameter is small.