A study of the supersonic flow field around a flat plate with obstructions using the method of luminescent pressure transducers

The experience of developing rocket and space hardware in recent years has shown a steady increase in the proportion of vehicles with highly nonlinear aerodynamic properties and a trend away from geometric forms reducible to axisymmetric modeling problems. This is what drove development and introduction into experimental research at TsNIIMash of new methods and techniques for visualizing complex 3D patterns of detached flows occurring in the vicinity of control surfaces and superstructures. Of interest in its own right is a study of origination of developed detached flow zones, pressure pulsations, vortex formations, condensation of individual components of gas flows and other transient processes, which need to be taken into account in the course of aerodynamic testing of advanced flying vehicles and complex engineering systems. This paper discusses the results of experimental studies of patterns of spatial supersonic gas flow upstream of flat obstacles installed on the plate. Shadow method was used to obtain the pattern of flow around an obstacle in the flow axial plane perpendicular to the model. The main objective of the study was to simultaneously record pressure fields on the plate surface using the method of luminescent pressure transducers. The obtained pressure profiles were used as a basis for calculating aerodynamic loads on the model surface and conducting an analysis of the flow pattern in the separated-flow region upstream of the obstacle.