Design and fabrication of a Mach 8 contoured nozzle for the LENS facility

A contoured Mach 8 nozzle has been designed and constructed for the Calspan-University at the Buffalo Research Center Large Energy National Shock Tunnel (LENS) facility to provide a capability to conduct full scale interceptor testing at altitudes from 10 km and scramjet combustor testing in the velocity range of 1.5-4.5 km/sec. This nozzle together with the existing high Mach number D-nozzle will expand the capability of this facility to cover a range of Mach numbers from Mach 6 through Mach 18. The design approach for this axisymmetric nozzle is based upon the classical method of characteristics technique with a boundary layer correction added to the inviscid contour. In addition, imperfect gas effects have been accounted for in the design process. These include thermochemical equilibrium, nonequilibrium, and real gas effects due to the very high nozzle reservoir pressures. (Author)