Numerical Prediction and Experimental Verification of Flow Field in Hypersonic Wind Tunnel

Abstract

The knowledge of the flow field inside the wind tunnel is an essential element for the identification of test experiment. For the sake of obtaining more insight of the flow propagation throughout a newly built wind tunnel, numerical simulation of the flow field is performed, and the Navier–Stokes equations are solved using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code Fluent. Experimental surveys of the wind tunnel flow with pressure sensors and thermocouple sensors are also performed, providing valuable data for the flow characterization. The Mach number, temperature and pressure in the core area of the wind tunnel are obtained, and the behavior of flow propagation is quantitatively described. The simulation results of the CFD model have a good agreement with the experimental data. Through this study, the flow field characteristics of the wind tunnel are obtained, which can provide some reference for future experiments.