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Analysis of Infrared Signature from Aircraft Frontal Aspect due to Skin Friction Heating
Journal Article
01-16-01-0001
ISSN: 1946-3855, e-ISSN: 1946-3901
Sector:
Citation:
V., K. and Mahulikar, S., "Analysis of Infrared Signature from Aircraft Frontal Aspect due to Skin Friction Heating," SAE Int. J. Aerosp. 16(1):3-20, 2023, https://doi.org/10.4271/01-16-01-0001.
Language:
English
Abstract:
At supersonic aircraft speeds, aerodynamically heated surfaces, e.g., nose, wing
leading edges, are infrared (IR) signature sources from the tactically crucial
frontal aspect. This study numerically predicts and then illustrates the
minimization of IR contrast between the nose and background sky radiance by the
emissivity optimization (εw,opt) technique, which has the least
performance penalties. The IR contrast between the aircraft nose and its
replaced background in 1.9-2.9 μm short-wave IR (SW-IR), 3-5 μm medium-wave IR
(MW-IR), and 8-12 μm long-wave IR (LW-IR) bands are obtained. The IR contrast
especially in LW-IR (i) increases with flight Mach number (M
∞) for a given flight altitude (H) and εw
(ii) decreases with increasing H for a given M
∞ and εw. The εw,opt for a flight altitude of 5
km is found to decrease from 0.99 at M
∞ = 0.001 (low subsonic) in all three bands to 2 × 10−4 in
MW-IR and 0.0213 in LW-IR bands at M
∞ = 3 (high supersonic). Maximum contrast radiance due to skin
friction heating for a given εw is obtained in the LW-IR band up to
M
∞ ≤ 2.5, which shifts to the MW-IR band for M
∞ > 2.5.