Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre gets new trisonic wind tunnel

Subject: Science and Technology

The new trisonic wind tunnel at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) was inaugurated recently by conducting the first blow-down test successfully.
The massive structure, which can perform tests in three speed regimes, equips the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) with a robust in-house support system for space missions.

Trisonic Wind Tunnel

Trisonic Wind Tunnel is a system to aid aerodynamic design of rockets and re-entry spacecrafts by characterising a scaled model by evaluating forces, moments, load distribution, unsteady pressures, acoustic levels etc.
The tunnel has an overall length of about 160m and has a maximum cross section of 5.4m.
The tunnel can be used for testing various space vehicles in three flight regimes —
below the speed of sound (subsonic),
at the speed of sound (transonic) and
above the speed of sound (supersonic),
The tunnel can simulate flight conditions from 0.2 times the speed of sound (68 m/s) to 4 times the speed of sound (1360 m/s).
Its parts include air storage vessels, a settling chamber where the airflow is ‘smoothened’ out, and nozzles for releasing the air into the test section.
Implementation: The trisonic wind tunnel was implemented through M/s Tata Projects India Ltd with the assistance of industries across the country.
For years, ISRO had depended on the trisonic wind tunnel at the National Aerospace Laboratory (NAL), Bengaluru.

Hypersonic wind tunnel:

The VSSC is already equipped with a hypersonic wind tunnel for testing parameters of re-entry missions.
Commissioned in 2017, this tunnel can simulate flow speeds up to Mach 12.