Experimental Investigation of Magneto-Aerodynamic Interaction Studies in Hypersonic Flows

Abstract

Aerodynamic heating is one of the major issues in the design of planetary atmospheric reentry vehicles. Various thermal protection systems have been investigated by the researchers in order to protect the vehicle from such a high aerodynamic heating, with one among them being electromagnetic heat shield. In this method, the interaction between the applied magnetic field and the weakly ionized flow around the vehicle generates a Lorentz force which increases the shock standoff distance and thereby decreasing the heat transfer rates [1]. Previous works conducted in an arc-jet facility using weakly ionized argon as a test gas at Mach number of 2 and a total enthalpy of 1.1 MJ/kg found an increase in shock standoff distance and drag [2–4] and a decrease in heat transfer rates [5] as predicted by the theory.