Abstract
This paper describes the second electric discharge method for visualizing three dimensional shock shapes around hypersonic vehicles. The method is based on the following ideas: When an electrical discharge is generated across a shock wave, the shock wave can be seen as a different radiation intensity in the electric discharge. Therefore, the three-dimensional shock shape can be visualized by taking a discharge photograph from the downstream side of the flow. In this paper, the reasons that the different radiation intensity occurs are mentioned qualitatively by considering the electric field distribution near the shock wave. As an example of this method, the shock shape around a delta winged semicone is visualized.
