Operation of the ISL transonic shock tube in a high subsonic flow regime

Abstract

The transonic flow regime plays an important role in experimental aerodynamic research. Modern civil aircraft fly up to a Mach number of M ≈ 0.9 in the high subsonic speed regime, as, for example, the Boeing or Airbus passenger aircraft. Nearly sonic Mach numbers are foreseen for innovative airplane concepts like the sonic cruiser by Boeing. In the military domain, guided missiles like the cruise missile also fly in the high subsonic flow regime. For testing purposes, transonic wind tunnels are mainly used for sub- as well as supersonic design applications. These wind tunnels have normally very large dimensions, which makes their operation quite expensive. If only small scale tests are required, a cheap working facility turns out to be more beneficial. For this purpose, a conventional shock tube operated at transonic flow conditions has been put into operation at the ISL. In the transonic flow regime, however, the reduction of the tube cross section by the model can produce severe distortions followed by a choking of the shock tube flow in the test section. Extensive experimental investigations were performed to determine the subsonic choking Mach number as a function of the model size. These results are compared with theoretical estimations and, more in detail, with CFD calculations.