Numerical and experimental investigation of CO2 condensate behavior in hypersonic flow Conference Paper uri icon

abstract

  • Experimental and numerical investigations have been conducted to quantify the effects of carbon dioxide condensation on the fluid mechanics of an air/carbon dioxide mixture in a hypersonic nozzle expansion. Nozzle wall pressures and nozzle exit pitot surveys were used to evaluate the change in flow properties as a function of CO2, seeding level. As expected, the wall static pressures increased with seeding level due to heat released in the condensation process, and the pitot surveys were relatively insensitive to seeding. A non-condensing axisymmetric Navier-Stokes solution was developed for comparison to wall pressure and nozzle-exit flow survey measurements. The numerical results demonstrated good agreement with the non-condensing experimental data. Boundary-layer displacement thickness estimates and detailed wall pressure distribution data derived from this solution were used to define several effective one-dimensional area distributions for the nozzle. A quasi-one-dimensional (QLD) non-equilibrium condensing flow model was then used to predict the behavior of the condensing carbon-dioxide vapor. This tool employed a homogeneous nucleation model which included effects of CO2 cluster translational and rotational free energy. Using reasonable scaling of cluster surface tension values, the Q1D analyses accurately predicted the location and, to a lesser degree, the magnitude of the perturbation to the wall pressure distribution. The study demonstrates that the Lothe-Pound nucleation model, rather than the classical model used in prior studies of pure carbon dioxide', is appropriate for this carrier gas/vapor system.

name of conference

  • 21st Aerodynamic Measurement Technology and Ground Testing Conference

published proceedings

  • 21st Aerodynamic Measurement Technology and Ground Testing Conference

author list (cited authors)

  • Erbland, P., Rizzetta, D., & Miles, R.

citation count

  • 14

complete list of authors

  • Erbland, P||Rizzetta, D||Miles, R

publication date

  • June 2000