Laminar heat transfer to blunt cones in high-enthalpy hypervelocity flows

Measurements of heat transfer on spherically blunted cones of various bluntness ratios in high-enthalpy hypervelocity air flows obtained using a free-piston-driven shock tunnel are described. The stagnation enthalpies considered were in the range 14—20-MJ/kg (equivalent to flight speeds 4—6-km/s). The corresponding equilibrium stagnation temperatures were in the range 7000-9000 K. Comparison of measured data showed reasonable agreement with the classical theory of Lees 1 for small bluntness ratios while the large bluntness ratio results compared well with the empirical theory of Griffith and Lewis.4