Experimental investigation on aero-heating of rudder shaft within laminar/turbulent hypersonic boundary layers

The aero-heating of the rudder shaft region of a hypersonic vehicle is very harsh, as the peak heat flux in this region can be even higher than that at the stagnation point. Therefore, studying the aero-heating of the rudder shaft is of great significance for designing the thermal protection system of the hypersonic vehicle. In the wind tunnel test of the aero-heating effect, we find that with the increase of the angle of attack of the lifting body model, the increasement of the heat flux of the rudder shaft is larger under laminar flow conditions than that under turbulent flow conditions. To understand this, we design a wind tunnel experiment to study the effect of laminar/turbulent hypersonic boundary layers on the heat flux of the rudder shaft under the same wind tunnel freestream conditions. The experiment is carried out in the $\mathrm{?}$2 m shock tunnel (FD-14A) affiliated to the China Aerodynamics Research and Development Center (CARDC). The laminar boundary layer on the model is triggered to a turbulent one by using vortex generators, which are 2 mm-high diamonds. The aero-heating of the rudder shaft (with the rudder) and the protuberance (without the rudder) are studied in both hypersonic laminar and turbulent boundary layers under the same freestream condition. The nominal Mach numbers are 10 and 12, and the unit Reynolds numbers are 2.4 × 10⁶ m^?1 and 2.1 × 10⁶ m^?1. The angle of attack of the model is 20°, and the deflection angle of the rudder and the protuberance is 10°. The heat flux on the model surface is measured by thin film heat flux sensors, and the heat flux distribution along the center line of the lifting body model suggests that forced transition is achieved in the upstream of the rudder. The test results of the rudder shaft and the protuberance show that the heat flux of the rudder shaft is lower in the turbulent flow than that in the laminar flow, but the heat flux of the protuberance is the other way around, i.e., lower in the laminar flow than in the turbulent flow. The wind tunnel test results is also validated by numerical simulations. Our analysis suggests that this phenomenon is due to the difference of boundary layer velocities caused by different thickness of boundary layer between laminar and turbulent flows, as well as the restricted flow within the rudder gap. When the turbulent boundary layer is more than three times thicker than that of the laminar boundary layer, the heat flux of the rudder shaft under the laminar flow condition is higher than that under the turbulent flow condition. Discovery of this phenomenon has great importance for guiding the design of the thermal protection system for the rudder shaft of hypersonic vehicles.