Novel and Cost Effective Rain Erosion Tests at Supersonic Speeds

A novel, cost effective method to subject test materials to rain erosion at supersonic speeds is proposed. The facility supports the BMDO/MDA mission to develop, test and flight qualify launch vehicle components during boost phase through adverseenvironment conditions including rain. The proposed SUpersonic Rain Erosion (SURE) facility is very cost effective because it does not require moving the test material or a wind tunnel to generate the simulated supersonic rain. The facility will controldroplet size and speeds and will be capable of producing monodispersed droplets up to 1-2 millimeters in diameter. The SURE facility is capable of testing large materials for long time periods. The technology is based on work conducted by ContinuumDynamics, Inc. during the development of a wind tunnel based transonic rain ingestion project. Rain erosion testing at supersonic speeds is very costly and either utilizes high speed sleds moving through a simulated rainfield or aircraft flying throughnatural rain. The proposed rig will compliment existing facilities and provide unlimited test durations at nominal costs. Commercial potential includes lowering the cost barrier for the development of new rain erosion resistant materials.