High speed measurements of velocity, temperature and water content in hypersonic flows

NASA is currently interested in improving the capabilities of its supersonic and hypersonic wind tunnels to continue development of high speed aerospace vehicles, for both military and commercial applications. In order to develop these improved designs, inflow air conditions to the test articles need to be well characterized. For the particular tunnels that use combustion and vitiated air to generate the high speed flows, one can use the spectroscopic properties of water, arising from the combustion, to measure the static gas temperature and velocity, which leads to the mass capture ratio. Southwest Sciences proposes to design, build, test, calibrate and deliver a laser-based absorption, very high speed, mass capture analyzer. In this SBIR program, we will focus on the 8-foot diameter hypersonic tunnel noted in the Solicitation. Expanding on this design after Phase II, it would be capable of performing tomographic measurements of water vapor density, temperature and velocity a variety of wind tunnels. This sensor will be fully turnkey, autonomous, compact, and designed to operate in different wind tunnels with minimal modification. The Phase I research will focus on a single crossed beam channel with >10kHz response.