Monday, May 20

IIT Kanpur Develops India’s First Hypervelocity Expansion Tunnel Test Facility

Edited by Uzma Parveen
IIT Kanpur Develops India’s First Hypervelocity Expansion Tunnel Test Facility (Image: DST)

The Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (IITK) has successfully developed and tested India’s first Hypervelocity Expansion Tunnel Test Facility, marking a significant milestone in the nation’s progress towards Atmanirbhar Bharat. With this significant accomplishment, India joins a select group of nations possessing this cutting-edge hypersonic testing capacity.

Named S2, the test facility is indigenously designed and developed for ongoing missions of ISRO and DRDO including Gaganyaan, RLV, and hypersonic cruise missiles. The facility is capable of generating flight speeds between 3-10 km/s, matching the hypersonic condition.

The facility is divided into four main sections: the test section with a high vacuum system for creating and maintaining the hypersonic flow, the compression tube, the shock/acceleration tube, and the free piston driver. The DST-FIST program allowed for the acquisition of the facility’s entire instrumentation, including pressure sensors, related equipment/instruments for data acquisition and processing, and a vacuum system with a test section and related instrumentation.

It was developed by the Hypersonic Experimental Aerodynamics Laboratory at the Department of Aerospace Engineering, IIT Kanpur. The Department of Science & Technology’s (DST) Fund for Improvement in S&T Infrastructure (FIST) provided Rs 4.5 crores in 2018 to support the facility’s development.

The number of hypersonic research projects in India is rapidly increasing, and the establishment of a hypersonic test facility there will encourage additional researchers and aerospace engineers to work on hypersonic projects. Future defense and space missions, as well as the optimization of currently operating vehicles, will benefit from the research and data produced in the facility.