Lockheed Missiles and Space

Re-entry Vehicle Hypersonic Flow

Background. Lockheed was the main contractor for the U.S. Navy's submarine launched ballistic missiles, of which the D-5, Trident II, was the last to be deployed.

 

My work at Lockheed in the Aerodynamics Research and Development Group involved numerical simulation of rarefied supersonic/hypersonic flow around in-flight re-entry vehicles, ejected from the D-5 sub-orbital bus or similar platforms. The graphic above shows an experimental flow visualization of such flow by imaging electron-discharge induced fluorescence. The shock structure is clearly visible on the windward side of the model.

Rarefied Flow Measurement Using Electron Beam Fluorescence Imaging

As a means to validate computational fluid dynamics (CFD) codes that simulate re-entry vehicle performance in the upper atmosphere, the electron beam fluourescence technique for flow measurement has often been considered, due to its non-intrusiveness and easily-measured luminance compared with flow diagnostics typically used in relatively dense flows. In collaboration with Prof. Robert Cattolica at UC San Diego, and others, I worked to model and to measure electron beam propagation and spatial fluorescence distributions as functions of gas flow density and molecular composition, beam energy and other parameters. (See Wiki page from Home page).