Ground Test Studies of the HIFiRE-1 Transition Experiment Part 1: Experimental Results

As part of a two-phase experimental study to obtain detailed heating and pressure data over the full-scale hypersonic international flight research and experimentation (HIFiRE-1, formally FRESH FX-1) flight geometry, Calspan-University at Buffalo Research Center has completed a matrix of ground tests to determine the optimal flight geometry and instrumentation configuration necessary to make measurements of desired flow phenomena during the flight experiment. The primary objective of the HIFiRE-1 flight experiment is to collect high-quality flight data from integrated flight instrumentation to be used for computational fluid dynamic code and ground test facility validation in regions of boundary-layer transition, turbulent separated flow, and shock/boundary-layer interaction. To support this flight experiment, data have been obtained in the large energy national shock hypervelocity wind tunnel employing a full-scale model over a range of Mach numbers from 6.5 to 7.4 and Reynolds numbers from 0.5E + 06 to 5.5E + 6 duplicating the reentry trajectory. These points gave researchers the best chance to measure the transition process on the forecone and have a turbulent separated flow on the cylinder that reattached onto the flare section. These test condition ranges were determined directly from the nominal descent trajectory of the Australian-launched Terrier-Orion launch vehicle that will serve as the booster for HIFiRE-1. The entire experimental database will be compared to future flight data and used by computationalists to validate codes in regions of attached and separated laminar and turbulent flows with shock/boundary layer interaction. In addition to the experimental data, Calspan-University at Buffalo Research Center performed a large amount of computational fluid dynamic analyses to confirm and validate not only the tunnel How conditions, but also the two- and three-dimensional flows over the model itself. These detailed computational results will be presented in a Part 2 companion paper.