Designing a High Quality Supersonic Wind Tunnel

The goal of this paper is to design a supersonic wind tunnel (SWT) using method of characteristics. This SWT will be the indraft or draw-down type, with the necessary pressure ratio provided by an existing vacuum chamber. The design constraints included interfacing with existing flanges on the vacuum chamber, the ability to sustain a supersonic flow for at least two minutes, optical access for the test section of the tunnel, and maintaining costs within the allocated budget. The mechanical design of the tunnel was completed using solid modeling software and the supersonic nozzle was designed using the method of characteristics. This report details the process of determining critical dimensions (throat area and expansion ratio), estimating the attainable test duration, and design of a supersonic nozzle to minimize shocks in the test section.