High Density Tunnel
University of Oxford
The High-Density Tunnel (HDT) is a reconfigured and upgraded facility from the original RAE shock tube, acquired by the University of Oxford in 2012. It operates either as a Ludwieg tunnel or a Light Piston Compression Heating facility, producing cold hypersonic flow conditions with test times long enough to investigate unsteady flow effects. This facility is part of the National Wind Tunnel Facility partnership
Operating as a Hypersonic Heated Ludwieg Tube it has a section size 0.35 m diameter, Mach number 3 – 9 and a maximum flow speed of 3 km/s.
- Location:
- Oxford
- Test Section 1 size:
- Test flow size: 0.25 - 0..35 m (diameter).
Test section size: 2 m diameter, 1.4 m long
- Designation:
- Heated Ludwieg Tube
- Performance:
-
Mach Number: 3,4,5,6,7 and 9
Maximum Flow Speed: 3 km/s
Maximum Flow Speed: Mach 3,4,5,6,7 and 9
Reynolds No: 5x 10^8 /m
Total Pressure: 27.5 MPa (max)
Temperature: up to 2000 K
Run Time: up to 70 ms
Typical Recharge Time: 10 mins
- Testing Capabilities:
-
Model Support: Remote actuated support (+/-20 degree AoA and +/-10 degree BoA)
Data Acquisition: NI PXI –128 channels @ 2 MHz/channel.
4 Channel Oscilloscope up 5 GHz.
Freeflight DAQ up to 6 channels, 20 kHz
Data Ports: 3 x 35 channel
Measurement hardware
Megahertz Schlieren at full HD resolution, laser based optics, high response pressure transducers, high response bespoke thin film heat transfer gauges, hot wire anemometer, FLDI, high current and voltage power supplies.
- Specialist Rigs:
- Boundary Layer Stability and Transition
Supersonic/Hypersonic Intake
Boundary layer separation studies
Freeflight testing
Aerodynamic testing
Thin Film Gauge sensitivity and frequency response calibration
Pressure transducer sensitivity and frequency response calibration - Equipment:
- Actuated transverse for model mounting (Quadratech/Micromech)
Thin film gauge signal conditioning instrumentation (MartinOldfield/Monitran)
Three wire Hot Wire Anemometer (DANTEC)
Conitnuum Powelite 8000 Nd:Yag laser (Continuum)
Low noise 532 nm DPSS laser (Oxxium)
671 nm DPSS laser (Laser Quantum)
High bandwidth (>1 MHz) piezoelectric pressure transducers (PCB)
High bandwidth (250 kHz) strain gauge pressure transducers (Kulite)
Ultra-high speed (5 MHz) HD video camera (Specialised Imaging)
High Speed (1 MHz, reduced pixel) continuous HD video camera (Photron)
High speed LED light source (1 MHz)
12” Schlieren optics
Laser and visual optics/mounts