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High Supersonic Tunnel (HSST)

University of Manchester

Location:
Manchester
Test Section 1 size:
0.3 x 0.3 x 1m
Nozzle diameter: 0.152m
Designation:
Blow-down
Performance:
Mach Number: 4, 5, 6
Maximum Flow Speed: 1.2 km/s
Reynolds No: Mach 4: 0.4 - 38x10⁶/m
Mach 5: 0.2 - 25x10⁶/m
Mach 6: 0.6 - 10x10⁶/m
Total Pressure: up to 850 kPa

Temperature: 300-950°K

Run Time: 8 seconds max
Typical Recharge Time: 15 mins
Testing Capabilities:
Model Support: Arc-balance sting with Three-component force balance
Floor-mounted rail
Data Acquisition: Multichannel simultaneous data sampling
Outputs: Forces/moment, pressure, velocity and surface temperature
Dual-Sting testing
Drop testing
Mach 5 centre-body nozzles for boundary layer transition measurement
Flow visualisation: Surface oil flow viz, schlieren & shadowgraph imaging
Infrared thermography
Pressure-sensitive paints
Temperature-sensitive paints
PIV
BOS
Pressure transducers
Planar-laser scattering
Specialist Rigs:
Planar-laser scattering
Equipment:
• Three component (Lift/Drag/pitch moment) sting balance on arc sector mount (Aerotech).
• High Speed (Phantom V310 or Photron SAZ) or High Resolution (Digital SLR or Basler Ace machine vision cameras) Schlieren System (arc lamp excitation). Versatile system with high magnification available.
• Model deformation and deflection measurements (LAVision)
• FLIR IR A65SC compact camera
• Four-camera tomographic PIV System with nanopoweder seeding (LAVision). Stereoscopic PIV Systems (LAVision, Dantec, and TSI). Multiple PIV lasers, including light arms and fibre guides (up to 200mJ per pulse).
• Pressure-Sensitive Paint systems using ratiometric or lifetime measurements of single component or binary coatings (PCO).
• Unsteady pressure transducer measurements using Kulite rugged transducers.

Capabilities
• Steady and Unsteady PSP measurements
• Simultaneous shape and surface pressure measurements.
• Steady and unsteady background oriented schlieren measurements.
• Boundary layer transition measurements using TSP or IR.
• Powered models (inlet blockage) and drop testing.
• Floor and ceiling plenum mounts for models or instrumentation. Half or full model configurations.
• Optical access from side and above tunnel. Removable and reconfigurable plates. Germanium window in plenum roof for IR measurements using IR camera.
• Tunnel patch panel to mount lights, cameras, sensors inside section easily