Forebody convective hypersonic heat transfer measurements over large-angle blunt cones

KNOWLEDGE of surface heat transfer rates for a vehicle con-. guration under hypersonic � ow is essential to quantify the heat-shieldingrequirement for the thermal protectionsystem (TPS) of space missions. Typically low-lift and high-drag bodies such as large-angle blunt cones are used as heat shields in modern aeroassisted orbital transfer vehicles1 (AOTVs). The development of these space vehicles requires a large volume of heat transfer data, which can also be used to validate computational uid dynamic codes. Although most of the AOTVs operate at very high velocities and high altitudes, the maximum convective heating will occur at conditions corresponding to continuum/near-continuum ow.2 Hence, carefullydesignedground-basedexperimentsin typicalhigh enthalpy continuum ow conditions will be very useful in designing the requisite TPS for such space missions. Previously, many authors have reported heat transfer measurements over large-angle blunt bodies