Restricted Research - Award List, Note/Discussion Page
Fiscal Year: 2023
1515 The University of Texas at Arlington (143403)
Principal Investigator: Dr. Luca Maddalena,luca@uta.edu,(817) 272-1123
Total Amount of Contract, Award, or Gift (Annual before 2011): $ 1,493,447
Exceeds $250,000 (Is it flagged?): Yes
Start and End Dates: 2/1/23 - 1/31/24
Restricted Research: YES
Academic Discipline: Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering
Department, Center, School, or Institute: none
Title of Contract, Award, or Gift: DURIP 3MW DC Power Supply and Vacuum Pumps for the ONR-UTA Arc-Heated Plasma Wind Tunnel
Name of Granting or Contracting Agency/Entity:
Office of Naval Research (ONR)
CFDA Link: DOD
12.300
Program Title:
DURIP
CFDA Linked: Basic and Applied Scientific Research
Note:
(SAM Category 1.1.4.) The University of Texas at Arlington houses a unique combination, in the academic panorama, of experimental facilities dedicated to fundamental research with focus on relevant aspects of low-speed, high-speed, high-enthalpy flows, and high-temperature gas/surface interaction. In particular, the Aerodynamics Research Center was awarded a grant by the Office of Naval Research and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to develop, based on the previous 1.6MW Arc-Heated Wind Tunnel (AHWT) system, a national-level research facility for high-temperature materials development and characterization in support of DoD programs on ultra-high temperature materials for hypersonic technologies. The only university-operated, large-scale, arc-heated wind tunnel in the country capable of high-impact pressures and high-shear. For more than 40 years, arc-jet testing has served as primary basis for characterizing Thermal Protection Systems (TPS) in support of material development and response model validation. AHWT facilities provide the only ground-based means of simulating hypersonic heating rates (entry, re-entry, hypersonic cruise) in a reacting flow environment under flight-relevant durations. Arc-jet testing provides data for detail material response models that can reduce uncertainty and the magnitude of thickness margins. Arc-jets are also essential to investigate mechanical failure modes including erosion, spallation, and losses related to shear effects. This proposal is for a new 3MW power supply for the ONR-UTA arc-heated plasma wind tunnel to expand the facility envelope and to bring in reliability for testing TPS materials. Specifically, this equipment allows for a significant extension of the arc-jet performance envelope in terms of enthalpy, equivalent flight velocity and trajectory simulation at representative flight altitudes. This equipment will also render the arc-heated wind tunnel system more reliable (the current power supply is 30-year-old) and therefore capable of sustaining the growing demand by corporate and government organizations to utilize this facility in support of DoD projects in hypersonics. With the proposed upgrades, the new arc-heated wind tunnel will constitute a national asset and a unique platform in support of the Department of Defense programs on aerothermodynamics and ultra-high temperature materials for hypersonic technologies. Participating students will be able to gain unique scientific and technical expertise in associated disciplines relevant to the DOD.
Discussion: No discussion notes