Turbulent heat transfer during Mars Venus and Earth atmospheric entry

该项目旨在为航天器设计更好的隔热罩。设计再入飞行器的防热罩需要良好的模型来预测气动加热。常规风洞无法在地面试验中测量峰值加热区域的气动加热，这使得设计具有不确定性和风险。该项目将使用一个自由活塞驱动的膨胀风洞，它可以产生足够快和密集的流动，以测量再入过程中遇到的最高速度下湍流边界层的加热。这将使科学家能够测试和开发加热的理论和数值模型，从而改进航天器的设计。

This project aims to design better heat shields for spacecraft. Designing heat shields for re-entry vehicles needs good models to predict aerodynamic heating. Conventional wind tunnels cannot measure aerodynamic heating in ground tests in the region of peak heating, making design uncertain and risky. This project will use a free-piston-driven expansion tunnel that can produce flows fast and dense enough to measure heating for turbulent boundary layers at the highest speeds encountered during re-entry. This should allow scientists to test and develop theoretical and numerical models of heating and so improve spacecraft design.