EXTREMELY HIGH TEMPERATURE, MIROMACHINED, FIBER OPTIC PRESSURE AND SKIN FRICTION SENSORS FOR COMBUSTING FLOWS

The technology now exists to construct a SiC micromachined, sapphire waveguide, skin friction and pressure sensor that can operate at the extremely high temperatures of ramjet/scramjet combustors. This design offers the ability to obtain measurements in flow regimes that have proven nearly impossible in the past. The data obtained by these senors will be invaluable for validation and development of CFD codes for combusting flows. This instrumentation is crucial to the development and operation of affordable, effective, and efficient 21st century aircraft and weapon systems. The accurate measurement of skin friction and pressure in fluid dynamic devices is important for understanding the basic fluid physics involved and assessing the performance of the device, leading to improvements in the design and operation of future high-speed transportation systems.An excellent, development team has been assembled including Proessor Joseph Schetz of Virginia Tech, a world leader in skin friction measurements, AeroSoft, a world leader in CFD software development, Litton Poly-Scientific, experts in micromachining technologies, TaiTech, experts in wind tunnel instrumentation, and F&S, a leader in fiber optic sensor development and commecialization. The F&S team is both qualified and motivated to build upon their combined demonstrated capabilities to accomplish this development and commercialization project.