The development and deployment of hypersonic vehicles will ultimately require the successful transition of the latest advanced technologies from academic laboratories into large DOD test facilities. Many of the principal remaining phenomenological challenges in hypersonics – boundary-layer transition, shock-boundary-layer interactions, fluid-thermal-structure interactions, ablation, and others – are multi-disciplinary and highly dependent upon physical scales and the test environments in which they are studied. As interest in hypersonics accelerates toward acquisition programs, understanding relevant aerodynamic and aero-structure scaling relationships, facility effects, and ground-to-flight extrapolation techniques are more important than ever. To address these gaps, the AFRL High Speed Systems Division performs and supports research into these complex phenomena and supports the maturation of the advanced diagnostics required to study them. A research-scale, variable Mach, intermittent blow-down wind tunnel located at the Arnold Engineering Development Complex (AEDC) at Arnold Air Force Base and operated by the AFRL High Speed Experimentation Branch is available for exploratory research, including an existing suite of non-intrusive diagnostics: tomographic particle image velocimetry (PIV), stereoscopic digital image correlation (DIC), high-speed schlieren, and plenoptic imaging. Other interests include pressure- and temperature-sensitive paints, molecular tagging techniques, and density-based techniques (e.g. interferometry). First-time participants can utilize this AFRL-operated facility to perform small-scale research and develop and demonstrate candidate diagnostics; repeat participants may have the opportunity to work with AFRL to perform follow-on experiments in the larger AEDC-operated test facilities.
Keywords: High-speed flows; advanced optical diagnostics; multi-physics; fluid structure interactions; boundary-layer transition; shock-boundary-layer interaction; wind tunnels; wind tunnel characterization
Eligibility: Open to U.S. citizens
