This paper deals with the analytical and experimental determination of the morphology of debris plumes in hypersonic low pressure aerodynamic flowfields. These debris plumes are composed of both gas and solid particulate matter ablated from composite materials by repetitive pulse high energy laser beams. The repetition rate of these individual clouds is determined by that of the incident laser beam. Repetition rates covered in the study range from 10 Hz to 100,000 Hz, and are compared to the steady vapor plume from a CW laser/material interaction situation. Extensive modeling of the coupled gasfrarticulate plume and its expansion into the hypersonic flowfield has been accomplished, and compared to pertinent experiments. These experiments were performed in a large scale hypersonic test facility using high stagnation temperature and stagnation pressure flowfields to produce test conditions with static temperatures in the range 200-300 Kelvin, static pressures in the range 10-4 to 10-1 atmospheres, and freestream test section Mach numbers in the range of two to five. Data will be presented on the behavior of vapor only, particulate only, and combined vapor/particulate plumes injected into such flowfields.

Date Published: 1 February 1991
PDF: 14 pages
Proc. SPIE 1397, 8th Intl Symp on Gas Flow and Chemical Lasers, (1 February 1991); doi: 10.1117/12.25896

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 1397:
8th Intl Symp on Gas Flow and Chemical Lasers
Concepcion Maroto Domingo; Jose M. Orza, Editor(s)