DEVELOPMENT OF F4 HOTSHOT WINDTUNNEL FOR HIGH ENTHALPY SCRAMJET TESTS

摘要

The French hypersonic propulsion program PREPHA [1] and the system studies which were carried out after its termination up to now [2] [3] [4] [8] [10] , clearly show that the interest of high speed aibreathing propulsion is best drawn as soon as the system is able to use the scramjet up to around Mach 12.Existing facilities, mostly developed during the PREPHA, can today be used in France for direct connect tests of dual mode ramjets up to Mach 7,5 conditions.Studying the effects of the forebody and air inlet on the engine's operations require the use of larger facilities enabling semi-free or free jet tests. Even if further development of existing test facilities is required to enable such tests, no fundamental question is raised unless the maximum aimed simulated Mach number remains below Mach 7,5 or 8.However, when trying to reach Mach 10 or 12 scramjet test capabilities, it still appears mandatory to start using new facilities able to provide adequate temperature and pressure conditions.The development of ONERA S4 blowdown windtunnel has been started in the frame of the MBDA/ONERA led LEA program to allow the development of the experimental vehicle in the range Mach 4-8.[14] [15] [19].In addition, the F4 hotshot windtunnel seems to offer high capabilities to test moderate size scramjets in free jet or semi-free jet in the range Mach 8-12, due to its very high pressure and total temperature capability, and to a much larger run duration than the ones offered by shock tunnels.