High-speed flight experimental test facilities development in the UAE
Creators: name:  JOAO FELIPE DE ARAUJO MARTOS 
name:   ALESSANDRO MARINI 
name:   HENRIQUE GUSTAVO ARGENTIERI 
Publisher: name: Proceedings of the Aerospace Europe Conference - EUCASS - CEAS - 2023
Year: 2023
Subjects: HIGH SPEED FLIGHT
LUDWIEG TUBE
COMBUSTOR TEST FACILITYHIGH SPEED FLIGHT
COMBUSTOR TEST FACILITY

description: High-speed transportation has always been desired by our society to reduce transport time and increase world integration. Unfortunately, since the retirement of Concorde aircraft, we dont have any civilian aircraft capable of it. Supersonic transport for passengers and cargo with a great reduction in flight duration represents a major commercial appeal and holds an empty niche in this market since that. In order to develop economically and physically viable aircraft it is necessary to understand the unique features of compressible flow highlighting it as a field of great interest nowadays. There are several research topics to be investigated in order to develop commercially viable supersonic/hypersonic aircraft and some of them are: The reduction of the sonic boom that could increase the supersonic flight routes; The waverider technology to improve the aerodynamics efficiency; Propulsion systems such as ramjet, scramjet, air turbo rockets to provide the necessary thrust with viable fuel consumption; Subsystems for combined cycles propulsion systems; Materials and GNC systems capable of operating in such harsh environment. As can be seen, plenty of technology development is still necessary in this field and it is impossible to test everything in a single ground test facility. It is then necessary to develop multiple test facilities dedicated to specific subsystems. In this context, experimental facilities capable to provide the desired conditions of high-speed flows in a controlled environment are necessary for testing and verification along all the project stages. There are several types of testing facilities capable of generating supersonic flow, among these the Ludwieg tube has become the chosen one from several institutions around the world due to its versatile characteristics for aerodynamics analysis. To facilitate the development of propulsion systems, there is a need for a specialized test facility capable of replicating the combustion inlet enthalpy for extended durations compared to the current capabilities of the Ludwieg tube. Therefore, we propose the construction of a combustor-level test facility that can effectively evaluate the necessary high enthalpy conditions. In the Middle East, there is a lack of these types of facilities, so we propose a preliminary design based on theoretical and CFD simulation of a Ludwieg tube and a combustor level test facility suitable for RD. Establishing this capability in the region and thus boosting the national technology and scientific research on this field is our main goal. The objective is to conclude this endeavour with the comprehensive preliminary design of a Ludwieg tube and a combustor test facility, enabling the initiation of the detailed project for deploying these facilities in the near future.