Universiti Tenaga Nasional Short Duration Hypersonic Test Facility: Calibration and Verification

The first phase of this paper is aimed to develop a standard test procedure for short-duration hypersonic test facility that build at the Universiti Tenaga Nasional “UNITEN” in Malaysia. The facility has been designed, built, and commissioned for different values of diaphragm pressure ratios. A theoretical model was developed to evaluate the Mach number values as a function of diaphragm pressure ratio for different working fluids. The second phase is to run experimental tests for different operating conditions. The calculated parameters which are pressure, temperature and velocity were very comparable to the practical results. A high precision in house made thermocouple was used to measure the temperature profile during the facility operation. A numerical transient heat transfer mathematical model was developed to evaluate the heat flux from the surface temperature history. The principle of operation and the reasoning behind building such a facility are explained, and the governing equations for the shock tube are presented.