Reconfiguring the TUSQ Hypersonic Facility for Lower Mach Number Testing

Reconfiguring the TUSQ Hypersonic Facility for Lower Mach Number Testing

Establishing facilities that can achieve high Reynolds number and relatively long duration conditions are critical to the aerodynamic testing of scaled supersonic and hypersonic vehicles, structures, and dynamics. Existing hypersonic wind tunnels are not necessarily well-suited for delivery of lower Mach number flows because for a given nozzle exit size and specified stagnation conditions, the mass flow rate is much higher at the lower Mach numbers. Modification of existing test facilities to achieve these conditions often requires significant design work to integrate with the constraints of the existing infrastructure. This body of work provides a systematic approach to the design of such modifications. This work describes and analyses a system that expands the envelope of test conditions for a Mach 3 nozzle used in the hypersonic test facility at the University of Southern Queensland (TUSQ). Current capabilities of TUSQ at Mach 3 are approximately atmospheric stagnation pressure and ambient temperature, achieving a unit Reynolds number of 7.2 × 106 m-1 . A novel integrated spool valve and sleeve regulator are designed to deliver the new, high stagnation pressure conditions to the nozzle inlet. Simulations of the proposed system show that test times of up to 1 second and unit Reynolds numbers up to 84 × 106 m-1 at Mach 3 may be achieved.

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