NASA's Turbulent Heat Flux (THX) Experiments

This presentation will give an overview of the NASA Turbulent Heat Flux (THX) experiments. This work was conducted at NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) to collect measurements of velocities and temperatures for computational fluid dynamics (CFD) validation of heated flows, with a focus on propulsion system components. The experiments were conducted in 5 phases; four of which were conducted in the GRC Aeroacoustic Propulsion Laboratory (AAPL) using the Small Hot Jet Flow Rig (SHJAR). In addition, computational studies were also conducted for the experimental configurations, in order to provide a baseline of expected CFD results and to make an assessment of the capability of various CFD approached for calculating flows where the turbulent transport of heat was important. Two of the collected sets of data were also used for American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Propulsion Aerodynamic Workshops (PAWs). The data set from the 5th phases, collected for heated supersonic jets, was also used to construct new validation cases for the NASA Turbulence Model Resource (TMR).