Washington: A first-of-its-kind test facility unveiled earlier this month at the University of Notre Dame could improve the Pentagon’s hypersonic research and test enterprise.
Through a partnership with the Navy, the university has spent the last three years building a Mach 10 wind tunnel. The facility, which can simulate flight conditions up to 10 times the speed of sound, will boost Notre Dame’s fundamental hypersonic research efforts and provide a more realistic environment in which to test high-speed technology.
Along with its ability to mimic flight conditions at high speeds, the facility is quiet, which means it’s able to reduce the level of disturbance wind tunnels can create, providing an even more flight-representative environment.
The opening of the Mach 10 tunnel is a continuation of the university’s deep heritage in flight research, Jeffrey Rhoads, vice president of research at Notre Dame, said. The new facility advances that legacy by enabling fundamental research that addresses some of today’s toughest national security challenges, he said.
Hypersonic vehicles can fly and manoeuvre at speeds above Mach 5, and advances in this technology by Russia and China are driving a sense of urgency within the Defence Department to field hypersonic systems of its own. The Pentagon relies on wind tunnels and other testbeds to research and validate flight characteristics for these vehicles, but those facilities are in high demand, limiting access even for major programs.
Along with Notre Dame’s new Mach 10 facility, Purdue University last year opened a Hypersonics and Applied Research Facility that hosts a Mach 8 quiet wind tunnel and a hypersonic pulse shock tunnel that uses shock waves of high-temperature air to simulate flight scenarios at speeds from Mach 5 to Mach 40.
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