An experimental investigation on transpiration cooling of porous flat plate

In the development process of hypersonic aircrafts, an important mission is to search for an effective thermal protection, which can operate in the severe environment of high heat fluxes and high temperature oxidation where most traditional metal materials can not withstand. This paper describes a porous plate sintered by new-type metal matrix composite which is able to tolerate this severe environment through transpiration cooling, and presents an experimental investigation on the transpiration cooling. In the first series of experiments, some inherent physical properties of this sintered porous plate, such as porosity and permeability, are detected. Through another series of experiments, the influence of the relevant fluid parameters, such as the Reynolds numbers of hot flow and coolant flow, on the transpiration cooling performances is discussed. The aim is to obtain an optimal cooling efficiency, and to provide a validation data source for our numerical investigations on transpiration cooling effects in the future.