OFF-STAGNATION POINT TESTING IN PLASMA FACILITY

Reentry space vehicles face extreme conditions of heat §ux when inter-acting with the atmosphere at hypersonic velocities. Stagnation point heat §ux is normally used as a reference for Thermal Protection Ma-terial (TPS) design; however, many critical phenomena also occur at o¨-stagnation point. This paper adresses the implementation of an o¨-stagnation point methodology able to duplicate in ground facility the hypersonic boundary layer over a §at plate model. The ¦rst analysis using two-dimensional (2D) computational §uid dynamics (CFD) simu-lations is carried out to understand the limitations of this methodology when applying it in plasma wind tunnel. The results from the testing campaign at VKI Plasmatron are also presented.