Investigation of Hypersonic Laminar Heating Augmentation in the Stagnation Region

Laminar stagnation region heating augmentation is investigated in the AEDC Tunnel 9 at Mach 10 by performing high frequency surface pressure and heat transfer measurements on the Orion CEV capsule at zero degree angle-of-attack for unit Reynolds numbers between 0.5 and 15 million per foot. Heating augmentation increases with Reynolds number, but is also model size dependent as it is absent on a 1.25-inch diameter model at Reynolds numbers where it reaches up to 15% on a 7-inch model. Heat transfer space-time correlations on the 7-inch model show that disturbances convect at the boundary layer edge velocity and that the streamwise integral scale increases with distance. Therefore, vorticity amplification due to stretching and piling-up in the stagnation region appears to be responsible for the stagnation point heating augmentation on the larger model. This assumption is reinforced by the f(exp -11/3) dependence of the surface pressure spectrum compared to the f(exp -1) dependence in the free stream. Vorticity amplification does not occur on the 1.25- inch model because the disturbances are too large. Improved free stream fluctuation measurements will be required to determine if significant vorticity is present upstream or mostly generated behind the bow shock.