Experimental study of shock wave mitigation at mach 2.45 using aero-spike plasma

In this study, shock wave mitigation technique was analyzed using qualitative observations of plasma discharge in Mach 2.45 and atmospheric conditions testing. Plasma was produced in front of the aero-spike model by a 50 Hz, 50 mA, 30Kv electrical discharge and shadowgraph imaging technique at 300 frame per second and camera recording at 1000fps were used to record the qualitative results. Laboratory results show that increasing the magnetic field increases the frequency, stabilizes the glow discharge, changes the motion path of the charged particles from circular to cyclotron, improves plasma overlapping and also thickens the shock layer. Shadowgraph images at Mach 2.45 show that combining magnetism with and increased by 7.5 degrees at a shock wave angle and mitigates shock waves and removes the bow shock downstream of the spike. This is the most important result that indicates combining plasma and magnetism can remove shock waves at supersonic speeds and thus reduce wave drag.