Heat-pipe Based Static Pressure Probe for High Enthalpy Flow Facilities

Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI) proposes to develop a low cost and serviceable static pressure probe for hypersonic and high enthalpy flow facilities, which will implement an integral heatsink design to cool the static probe heads and enable sustained operation at heat loads greater than 500 W/cm2. This new sensor capability will enable ground test facilities to accurately diagnose the free-stream conditions present in supersonic and hypersonic flows without destruction or degradation of the probe. During the Phase I effort, PSI demonstrated survival of a cone-cylinder probe exposed to hypersonic flow in PSI’s Hypersonic Material Testbed (HMT) and used data from these experiments to develop a preliminary Phase II prototype probe design for the Aerodynamic and Propulsion Test Unit (APTU). The Phase II program will focus on building, testing and calibrating the prototype static probes in several hypersonic flow facilities, and delivering the final prototype probes to the APTU facility.