On the Design and Calibration of an Actively Controlled Expansion Hypersonic Wind Tunnel

Abstract

*† ‡ § ** The Actively Controlled Expansion (ACE) hypersonic wind tunnel facility was deigned to provide continuously variable hypersonic flow conditions over a Mach number range of 5.0 to 7.0. The facility operates in blow-down mode, and the run time is nominally 50 seconds. The nozzle system was designed such that the Mach number can be actively controlled as the tunnel is running. The estimated response time of the flow is on the order of 5-10 milliseconds. The cross-sectional area of the test section is 9.0 inch x 14.0 inch. In this paper, we describe the design and calibration of this new facility.