Facility Development and Condensation Studies

A static probe used to detect condensation in hypersonic tunnels.

Numerous hypersonic facilities have extremely low freestream static temperatures that can fall below 60 K, due to the material limits of reservoir facilities and facility turn-around time considerations. At such low temperatures, the air becomes saturated and condensation of the flow can occur, ruining the validity of experimental results. Additionally, running the facility at a lower freestream static temperature allows for higher unit Reynolds numbers to be reached, which is critical for quiet tunnel studies. Research at Notre Dame is ongoing to study this condensation process in hypersonic facilities in order to inform current facility operating procedures and future quiet facility design.