• [2024-11-06]

  The world's largest hypersonic quiet wind tunnel was built at Peking University

The State Key Laboratory for Turbulence and Complex Systems of Peking University, after five years of meticulous work, finally ushered in the completion of the national Φ600+ and Mach number 6 hypersonic quiet wind tunnel project. This milestone facility was not only successfully commissioned, but also demonstrated excellent performance at Mach number 6.03 with a diameter of Φ600+, even under the harsh conditions of Re numbers of up to 10⁷/m, maintaining an extremely low noise level of about 0.3%, thus setting a new record for quiet wind tunnel testing in a high Reynolds number environment for the first time in the world. The wind tunnel is capable of continuous and stable operation for more than 100ms, establishing its position as the world's largest hypersonic quiet wind tunnel.

In contrast, the University of Notre Dame (US) has a quiet wind tunnel of the same scale (i.e., the same size), but according to their own report, the facility is still in the commissioning stage and has an incoming conventional noise level of 2.6%. This marks a breakthrough in the field of large-scale hypersonic quiet wind tunnels in China, which has reached the international leading level in terms of design concept and construction technology.

In addition, besides this newly equipment, Peking University has also successfully built a series of high-performance test platforms covering different specifications and speed ranges: including a 300 mm in diameter, which can be adjusted arbitrarily from subsonic speed to hypersonic speed; and a 600 mm diameter special model designed for Mach 6, etc. These fully demonstrate the role of the Peking University team as the main force in the development of major national equipment.

Through the pioneering work of the Φ600+, Mach 6 hypersonic quiet wind tunnel, China has once again proved its technological leadership in the aerospace field, and at the same time provides a broader platform for future exploration in related fields.

The following figure 1 shows a photo of the world’s largest hypersonic quiet wind tunnel built at Peking University.

Figure 1 Photo of the world’s largest hypersonic quiet wind tunnel built at Peking University