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Improving supersonic flights with femtosecond laser filamentation

When a flying object becomes supersonic, a concomitant increase in drag leads to a considerable rise in fuel consumption. We show experimentally that an embarked terawatt femtosecond laser can significantly decrease this drag. We measured a 50% transient reduction of drag on a test model placed in a...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Elias, P.-Q., Severac, N., Luyssen, J.-M., André, Y.-B., Doudet, I., Wattellier, B., Tobeli, J.-P., Albert, S., Mahieu, B., Bur, R., Mysyrowicz, A., Houard, A.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: American Association for the Advancement of Science 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6214642/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30406206
http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aau5239
Descripción
Sumario:When a flying object becomes supersonic, a concomitant increase in drag leads to a considerable rise in fuel consumption. We show experimentally that an embarked terawatt femtosecond laser can significantly decrease this drag. We measured a 50% transient reduction of drag on a test model placed in a supersonic wind tunnel at Mach 3. This effect was initiated by the thin hot air column created in front of the supersonic object by filamentation of the laser pulse. We also show that this technique offers possibilities for steering.