Analysis of aero-optical effects within supersonic vehicle imaging fields

Area of Science:

• Aerospace Engineering
• Optical Physics
• Fluid Dynamics

Background:

• Supersonic vehicles face significant challenges from aero-optical effects impacting imaging systems.
• Previous research primarily focused on the paraxial region, neglecting the full imaging field's aero-optical influences.
• Understanding these effects across the entire field-of-view (FOV) is crucial for advanced supersonic vehicle design.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a novel field-of-view (FOV) model for analyzing aero-optical effects in supersonic vehicles.
• To establish a comprehensive analysis method for aero-optical effects across the entire FOV.
• To investigate the distinct aberration characteristics in along-track and across-track imaging directions.

Main Methods:

• Development of a field-of-view (FOV) model enabling direct field angle sampling without specific optical system parameters.
• Application of a comprehensive analysis method for aero-optical effects within the established FOV model.
• Simulation and analysis of a blunt-cone supersonic vehicle with concave windows as a typical case study.

Main Results:

• Aero-optical aberrations exhibit different distribution characteristics and trends between along-track and across-track FOVs.
• These differences are attributed to varying non-uniform flow structures encountered by incident rays from different directions.
• Post-correction for central aberration, clear imaging angles are found to be -3.89° to 0.56° (along-track) and -2.78° to 2.78° (across-track).

Conclusions:

• The proposed FOV model and analysis method effectively characterize aero-optical effects across the entire imaging field.
• Directional differences in aero-optical aberrations are significant and dependent on the vehicle's geometry and flow field.
• The findings provide critical insights for optimizing imaging system performance in supersonic vehicles.