Laser-Induced Thermal Acoustic Measurements in a Highly Back-Pressured Scramjet Isolator Model: A Research Plan

Under the Propulsion Discipline of NASA s Fundamental Aeronautics Program s Hypersonics Project, a test apparatus, for testing a scramjet isolator model, is being constructed at NASA's Langley Research Center. The test apparatus will incorporate a 1-inch by 2-inch by 15-inch-long scramjet isolator model supplied with 2.1 lbm/sec of unheated dry air through a Mach 2.5 converging-diverging nozzle. The planned research will incorporate progressively more challenging measurement techniques to characterize the flow field within the isolator, concluding with the application of the Laser-Induced Thermal Acoustic (LITA) measurement technique. The primary goal of this research is to use the data acquired to validate Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) models employed to characterize the complex flow field of a scramjet isolator. This paper describes the test apparatus being constructed, pre-test CFD simulations, and the LITA measurement technique