Products > High Temperature Test Bed

Hypersonic Materials Testbed

High Temperature Materials Testing for Hypersonic Systems

High Temperature Materials Testing

Thermal Protection System Materials Testing for Hypersonic Systems

PSI’s Hypersonic Materials Testbed provides a low cost alternative to arc-jet testing to assess the performance of thermal protection system (TPS) materials under high enthalpy, high flow velocity and high heating rate conditions experienced at the leading edge of a hypersonic vehicle traveling up to Mach = 17. This unique capability incorporates PSI’s scalable (5 – 100 kW) microwave torch technology, MIDJetTM to produce a clean, high enthalpy, hypersonic flow enabling subscale (≤ 1” Φ) testing of TPS materials and measurement of oxidation /erosion rate, changes in surface and bulk material properties (including in-situ mechanical strength testing at temperature) and optical signatures.

Key Features

  • Compact table-top system: low-cost testing
  • Clean: Microwave jet, no electrode contamination
  • Relevant enthalpy (pure air on N2): 1 – 14 MJ/kg
  • Relevant stagnation point temperature: 1000 – 6000 K
  • Controlled heating rates: 0.25 – 1 kW/cm2
  • Relevant flow velocity: Simulate Mach 3 – 16 flight
  • Simulate altitudes (pump dependent): 15 – 70 km
  • Heated area: ≤ 2.54 cm diameter

Left: Table top hypersonic materials testbed. Right: Image and temperature map of a 1” Φ carbon-carbon sample under test: 5 MJ/kg

Benefit to Customer

Rapid turnaround, low cost testing and validation of materials for high temperature environments including Hypersonic systems.

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