Numerical modeling of heating a heat flux gauge in a supersonic flow

This paper has developed a mathematical model for calculating the conjugate heat transfer between a supersonic airflow at the freestream Mach numbers M _∞ = 3, 4, 5, and a copper plate simulating the sensitive thermocouple element. The calculation results are compared with the experiment. The calculations show the effect of turbulence intensity, temperature boundary condition, and flow rate on sensor heating. The results of the sensor's initial heat fluxes, maximum temperatures, and heating times in different flow regimes are presented. Also, the flow regimes with an adiabatic wall are considered. As a result of calculations, it is shown that for the given freestream Mach numbers under "cold" wall temperature conditions, the sensor warms up to the maximum temperature in 1.5-3 seconds and reaches temperatures from 789 to 1076 K. If the adiabatic conditions are assumed at the channel walls, depending on the Mach number at the channel entrance, the sensor is heated from 1600 to 2250 K.