Context:
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur has tested India’s first Hypervelocity Expansion Tunnel Test Facility.
India’s First Hypervelocity Expansion Tunnel Test Facility
- Funded by: Fund for Improvement in S&T Infrastructure (FIST) of the Department of Science & Technology (DST) with a sum of Rs 4.5 Crores in 2018.
Fund for Improvement of S&T Infrastructure (FIST):
- It is to provide basic infrastructure and enabling facilities for promoting R&D activities in new and emerging areas and attracting fresh talents in universities & other educational institutions.
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- Developed by: Aeronautical Research and Development Board (ARDB), the Department of Science and Technology (DST), and Hypersonic Experimental Aerodynamics Laboratory (HEAL) of IIT-Kanpur.
Hypervelocity Expansion Tunnel Test Facility
- About: The facility named S2 or ‘Jigarthanda’, is a 24-meter-long facility located at IIT-Kanpur’s Hypersonic Experimental Aerodynamics Laboratory (HEAL) within the Department of Aerospace Engineering.
- An expansion tunnel is an aerodynamic testing facility capable of generating high-energy test conditions with negligible or no ionisation for achieving the goal of high speeds for an aircraft.
- Function: The Facility can generate flight speeds between 3-10 km/s, simulating the hypersonic condition usually encountered during atmospheric entry of vehicles, asteroid entry, scramjet flights, and ballistic missiles.
- The lower limit of the flight speed generated by the facility is three kilometers per second.
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Significance of Hypervelocity Expansion Tunnel Test Facility
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- Help Existing Missions: S2 will help ISRO with its Gaganyaan mission and to test the Reusable Launch Vehicle and DRDO with its development of hypersonic cruise missiles.
- Boost the research ecosystem: It will enable more aerospace engineers and researchers to pursue hypersonic research.
- Future missions: The research activities and data generated in the facility will serve as an input for optimization of existing vehicles as well as futuristic defense and Space Missions.
- It will empower India’s space and Defence organizations with domestic hypersonic testing capabilities for critical projects and missions
Aerodynamics:
- It is a law which explains the way objects move through air. The rules of aerodynamics explain how an airplane is able to fly. Anything that moves through air is affected by aerodynamics
Hypervelocity:
- It is very high velocity, approximately over 3,000 meters per second or Mach 8.8
Ionization:
- It is any process by which electrically neutral atoms or molecules are converted to electrically charged atoms or molecules (ions) through gaining or losing electrons.
Hypersonic:
- A hypersonic speed is one that exceeds five times the speed of sound, often stated as starting at speeds of Mach 5 and above.
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Also Read: Interim Budget 2024-2025
News source: PIB
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February 9, 2024