Case study of the additive manufacturing application in the supersonic flow researches

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the aerodynamic behavior of a supersonic combustion test bench (SCTB) components, as the transition piece and the combustor of a scramjet (supersonic combustion ramjet), manufactured by 3D printing or additive manufacturing (AM). Design/methodology/approach For the dimensional and structural analysis of the manufactured models, a portable 3D scanner was used to generate the mesh of its dimensions, and to compare them before and after the experiments, a roughness measuring system was also used to verify the roughness inside the models before and after the tests, as roughness is an important parameter because it directly affects the boundary layer. For the visualization of the flow, the non-intrusive schlieren optical technique was used. Findings The experiments were carried out on the SCBT for Mach 2 flows, using the manufactured prototypes and showed that there was no structural and dimensional change of the model after the test batteries. It was found that the roughness presented by the material did not affect the quality of the flow generated. This shows that the investigated material can also be applied in experiments with supersonic flow. Originality/value This paper presents that it is possible to use in ground test facilities, for the studies of supersonic flow (in cold condition), pieces and models manufactured by 3D printing without affecting the quality of the flow generated during the experiments. This study presents a new perspective to approach AM applied in the studies of supersonic flows.