{"id":125740,"date":"2022-02-04T10:59:00","date_gmt":"2022-02-04T15:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=125740"},"modified":"2022-02-07T16:48:10","modified_gmt":"2022-02-07T21:48:10","slug":"ucf-lands-new-project-to-study-effect-of-rain-on-hypersonic-travel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-lands-new-project-to-study-effect-of-rain-on-hypersonic-travel\/","title":{"rendered":"UCF Lands New Project to Study Effect of Rain on Hypersonic Travel"},"content":{"rendered":"

University of Central Florida researchers<\/a> are part of a new $1 million project funded by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research to better understand and predict how and why raindrops are affected when they cross a hypersonic shock wave.<\/p>\n

Hypersonic speeds are those at Mach 5 and higher, or five times greater than the speed of sound. The U.S. is currently working on developing hypersonic systems for defense<\/a> and travel.<\/p>\n

The new project is important because colliding with something as light as a single raindrop could cause a lot of damage at hypersonic speeds. The work will inform researchers as to whether or not the raindrop maintains its single droplet form or breaks up into tens of much smaller droplets.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you have a rain droplet with a tenth of an inch diameter and you hit it at Mach 8, it can create a load as heavy as the weight of an elephant,\u201d says Michael Kinzel, project co-investigator and an assistant professor in UCF\u2019s Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering<\/a>. \u201cSo, you can\u2019t put an elephant on the wing of an aircraft, and it\u2019ll support it, right? It\u2019s a huge load. And these would be hitting all over parts of the vehicle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Knowing the impact of different size raindrops on hypersonic aircraft and rockets will help predict when to fly, as light rainstorms may not affect travel as much as heavy storms.<\/p>\n

The researchers want to narrow down what conditions make for safe hypersonic travel through rain. The knowledge could prevent damage and improve the accuracy of hypersonic rockets launched through rain and clouds, Kinzel says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis work will help lead to structural integrity when designing hypersonic vehicles,\u201d Kinzel says. \u201cAnd it develops a framework to understand how to design in that context as well as understand limitations of hypersonic flight with respect to some weather conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kinzel will work to model the effects of raindrops on hypersonic travel by using computer simulations.<\/p>\n