Water tunnel simulation of the internal flow of a segmented arc heater

A water tunnel study was undertaken to determine the flow-field properties and basic gas dynamic process in the High Enthalpy Ablation Test (HEAT-Hl) Arc heater. A twice-scale model simulating the inviscid circulation and internal geometry of the arc heater was tested at two Reynolds numbers, and visual data of the flow field were obtained. Results indicate that a good correlation exists between the flow anomalies visible in the water tunnel and some of the operational problems present in the arc heater. The knowledge gained from this study will be used to enhance basic understanding of the physics of the arc heater flow.