Analysis of the Possibilities of Local Simulation of Aerodynamic Heating in a Powerful VGU-3 HF-Plasmatron

The necessary conditions of local simulation of the aerodynamic heating in subsonic high-enthalpy air jets on the megawatt VGU-3 HF-plasmatron are determined. The domain in the “enthalpy-stagnation pressure” coordinates and, respectively, the boundaries of the velocity and the altitude of entry into the atmosphere are found for a body with the nose bluntness radius of 1 m for which these conditions can be implemented when using models with the effective radius of 10–45 mm. The experimental data confirming the conclusions of theory that the range of heat fluxes to the catalytic surface of a standard water-cooled model on the VGU-3 facility is significantly extended as compared with the VGU-4 100 kW HF-plasmatron are given.