Francois FALEMPIN, Alexandra DUARTE ANTONIO, Maxime LECHEVALLIER, Quentin MOULY, Julien LEFIEUX, Etienne CHOQUET, Quentin CHANZY
DOI Number: XXX-YYY-ZZZ
Conference number: HiSST2024-00225
In order to validate a trustable methodology to predict the aeropropulsive balance of an air breathing vehicle at high Mach number, MBDA developed a large scale free jet test facility allowing to test a full scale flight experimental vehicle in conditions as close as possible to those encountered in actual flight. Taking benefit of the flight vehicle capability to autonomously operate, the link between the vehicle and its support is limited to 4 piezoelectric gage systems allowing to directly measure the aeropropulsive balance while performing a variation of injected fuel to air ratio. The paper will describe the test facility designed for large scale free jet testing in the Mach number range Mach 4+ to Mach 6+, the experimental system (experimental vehicle and its gaseous fuel system as well as the aeropropulsive direct measurement system). Then paper will focus on full scale free jet test performed at Mach 6. After a description of test sequence and obtained test conditions, the operation of the system will be detailed and a comparison between measured and predicted aeropropulsive balance will be given and discussed.