DYNAMICS OF AN ACOUSTIC PROBE FOR MEASURING PRESSURE FLUCTUATIONS ON A HYPERSONIC RE-ENTRY VEHICLE

The excessive heat development on the exterior structure of hypersonic re entry vehicles necessitates the use of heat resistant pressure transducers for the measurement of boundary layer pressure fluctuations on the vehicle's surface. An appropriate acoustic probe configuration was developed and tested in wind tunnel experiments. The frequency response of the probe configuration to flow excitation was studied under subsonic (M = 0.055) and supersonic (M = 2.92) flow conditions and was found to depend both on the probe interior geometry and on the physical characteristics of the flow. In addition, the influence of heat shield ablation on the frequency response was studied under these same conditions. © 1968, Acoustical Society of America. All rights reserved.