Aerothermodynamic Characteristics of Boundary Layer Transition and Trip Effectiveness of the HIFiRE Flight 5 Vehicle

An experimental wind tunnel test was conducted in the NASA Langley Research Center’s 20-Inch Mach 6 Tunnel in support of the Hypersonic International Flight Research Experimentation Program. The information in this report is focused on the Flight 5 configuration, one in a series of flight experiments. This report documents experimental measurements made over a range of Reynolds numbers and angles of attack on several scaled ceramic heat transfer models of the Flight 5 vehicle. The heat transfer rate was measured using global phosphor thermography and the resulting images and heat transfer rate distributions were used to infer the state of the boundary layer on the windside, leeside and side surfaces. Boundary layer trips were used to force the boundary layer turbulent, and a study was conducted to determine the effectiveness of the trips with various heights. The experimental data highlighted in this test report were used determine the allowable roughness height for both the windside and side surfaces of the vehicle as well as provide for future tunnel-to-tunnel comparisons.

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