Commissioning experiments in the Oxford cold-driven expansion tube CXT

Conference item

This work summarises the construction and commissioning of the new Cold-driven Expansion Tube (CXT) facility at the University of Oxford. The facility utilises a helium driver, with operating pressures up to 8 MPa, and is designed to replicate Earth atmospheric entry environments by generating high-speed flows at velocities of up to 7 km/s. The operational characteristics of the facility are first explored using the computational tool L1d4 to evaluate its predicted performance envelope. This is compared to experimental data obtained from an ongoing commissioning campaign, where the facility is characterised using pressure transducer measurements. Secondary shock speeds up to 2.75 km/s were measured, indicating the ability of the facility to generate hypervelocity flows.

Authors: Valeinis, O; Chang, EWK; McGilvray, M; Hermann, T

• Publication status: Accepted
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Springer
• Series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science
• Acceptance date: 2025-03-27
• Event title: 35th International Symposium on Shockwaves (ISSW 2025)
• Event location: Brisbane, Australia
• Event website: https://mechmining.uq.edu.au/issw35
• Event start date: 2025-07-05
• Event end date: 2025-07-14
• EISSN: 1611-3349
• ISSN: 0302-9743
• Language: English
• Keywords: high-speed flows; ground-testing facilities; expansion tubes