On the design and construction of an academic mach 5 wind tunnel
Conference Paper
Overview
Overview
abstract
1999 by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc. All rights reserved. A university scale high-speed (Mach 4.9), high Reynolds Number (Re = 30-75106 m-1) wind tunnel was designed, constructed and validated. The wind tunnel is a blow-down design with an air supply that is heated by convection. With the exception of the high-pressure air delivery system, the entire tunnel was fabricated on-site. The air heating system proved to be the most challenging component of the system. A miniaturized version of refractive pebble bed heaters that are commonly used in larger Government owned facilities was developed. The design procedure for all of the components, that is readily amenable for programming on a personal computer, is outlined in the present paper.
