Free-Piston Shock Tunnel Test Technique Development: An AEDC/DLR Cooperative Program

Arnold Engineering Development Center (AEDC) and the German Aerospace Institute (DLR) have conducted a cooperative program on operation and test technique development for high enthalpy shock tunnels. The AEDC Free-Piston Shock Tunnel (FPST) and the DLR High Enthalpy Gottingen (HEG) facility were used for complementary test programs. The two organizations individually and jointly analyzed data from these tests to assess and advance the state of their computational fluid dynamics capabilities. Several nonintrusive diagnostic techniques were employed at each facility resulting in new and improved diagnostic capabilities for each partner. This report explains the organization of the joint program reviews the operation of free-piston shock tunnels and presents the results of data acquisition and analysis from the test programs.
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