Short-duration wind tunnel with combined heating and stabilization of parameters

Abstract

A high-enthalpy short-duration wind tunnel (hotshot wind tunnel) is designed for different operation modes ensured by combining various methods of test gas heating [by an electric arc, chemical energy, adiabatic compression, and heating in an external source of heat (with respect to the settling chamber)]. The wind tunnel is designed for the following ranges of parameters: stagnation pressure p0 = 1–200 MPa, stagnation temperature T0 = 600–4000 K, Mach number M = 4–20, and test time t < 1 s. The wind tunnel can operate both in the regime of the classical hotshot facility with decreasing parameters of the test gas and in the regime with stabilization of parameters owing to synchronized motion of the opposite pistons of the pressure multiplier toward each other.