Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency Wind Tunnel Technology Center, Institute of Space Technology and Aeronautics
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency Wind Tunnel Technology Center, Institute of Space Technology and Aeronautics
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency Wind Tunnel Technology Center, Institute of Space Technology and Aeronautics
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency Wind Tunnel Technology Center, Institute of Space Technology and Aeronautics
The 1.27 m hypersonic wind tunnel at JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), with its fixed Mach 10 nozzle, is one of the largest hypersonic wind tunnels in the world. It has been contributing to hypersonic vehicle design by supplying data on aerodynamic force and moment, pressure distribution, and aerodynamic heating. The tunnel was completed in 1995, and the nozzle was re-machined in 1998 to improve flow quality. To verify the flow characteristics, calibration tests using pitot rakes and an AGARD-J model have been performed. A series of calibration tests was performed to measure the surface pressure distributions on the AGARD-E (hemisphere) model before and after nozzle modification. This report first compares the experimental data before and after nozzle modification and evaluates the effects of the modification. Then, it compares the experimental data with the CFD results and with other AGARD-E results conducted in other wind tunnels. Finally, estimated is the ratio of specific heats gamma using schlieren photographs of the detached shock. The results indicate a significant improvement in the quality of the flow. The experimental results using the modified nozzle also show good agreement with the results of CFD and the other wind tunnels. The estimated ratio of specific heats gamma agrees well with the theoretical value based on an imperfect gas.