How powerful is China’s 35 times the speed of sound wind tunnel?

China's 35 times supersonic wind tunnel has a wind speed of nearly 12 kilometers per second. The wind force can blow down a 34-ton intercontinental missile and reach the west coast of the United States in 14 minutes. In terms of wind tunnel technology, the Americans are far behind.

What does 35 times the speed of sound mean? The wind speed is close to 12 kilometers per second, and it will take 14 minutes to reach the United States, which is just the time to go to the toilet. In real life, the wind force is divided into levels. The wind speed of level 10 is only 24 to 28 meters per second, which is not at the same level as the wind tunnel of 35 times the speed of sound.

What is a wind tunnel? How does it work?

The word "wind tunnel" cannot be understood literally. It is a high-tech aerospace product and has a high-end feeling. Currently, few countries can build an advanced 35 times supersonic wind tunnel. Even the powerful United States is still a little short of this level.

From the perspective of appearance and structure, a wind tunnel is a laboratory. The size of the area varies depending on the scale of its construction. It is made of metal on the outside and has exits and entrances. Controllers and valves are installed at various positions to simulate the operation of aircraft.

There are also closed-structure annular wind tunnels, which are small wind tunnels with a shape similar to that of a pipe. They are often used as equipment for corporate power experiments and their construction cost is not that high.

The world's first wind tunnel was built by the British man Wenham. At that time, technology was not well developed and the material used was wood. The cross-section was 46 centimeters and the total length was only 3.05 meters. All measurement data was completed manually.

Nowadays, wind tunnels are becoming larger and larger, with an area of ​​more than 800 square meters, which is enough to accommodate a large aircraft. The machinery and equipment inside can control the airflow, monitor the surrounding gas flow, and obtain relevant experimental data to study various new aircraft. It is suitable for aerospace, military and other fields.

China's 35 times supersonic wind tunnel can reach a wind speed of 12 kilometers per second after it is started. It is no exaggeration to say that the wind force generated can blow down a 34-ton intercontinental missile.

Some people may ask, if a 35 times supersonic wind tunnel is so powerful, if it is placed on the battlefield, can it replace the satellite interception system and directly blow down missiles? This idea is very bold, but the wind tunnel cannot do this yet.

I need to remind everyone that I just said before that the wind force generated by the 35 times the speed of sound wind tunnel can blow down the missile. This wind force is only generated inside the missile. What's more, some missiles will become invisible after launch and fly outside the atmosphere most of the time. Even the probability of being intercepted by satellites and radars is not high. It is not realistic to use a wind tunnel to blow at the missile.

In fact, a wind tunnel is a place for testing aircraft. The space inside is large enough to install various equipment and controllers, and large and small aircraft models can be driven into it.

The generator in the wind tunnel generates a strong airflow, which passes through special pipes and can form wind, blowing onto the surface of the model, forming a different atmospheric noise environment. The aircraft model will change, and the sensor receives this data and transmits it to the control center, which can calculate the impact of the strong airflow on the model. Later, when manufacturing the aircraft, the parameters can be appropriately improved to increase stability and safety.

Wind tunnels generate strong airflows, which are affected by the site and model, and the data obtained also vary. For general aircraft, ordinary wind tunnels can meet the testing requirements, and there is no need to use hypersonic wind tunnels.

This type of ordinary wind tunnel does not require much space and only needs to be equipped with a main high-power fan and a jet pipe. The technical level of most countries can achieve this.

The development history of wind tunnel construction in my country

In 1963, my country built its first wind tunnel. We all know how difficult the conditions were at that time. Although we started late, it was not a small step forward.

In 1968, scientists such as Qian Xuesen and Guo Yonghuai proposed that domestic aerodynamic research must be accelerated, and an experimental base was built in Sichuan. At that time, it was the largest wind tunnel base in Asia.

The wind tunnel built at that time was less than 3 meters in length. Although small, it was fully equipped with low-speed, high-speed and ultra-high-speed power, and could conduct experiments on wind, noise, icing, etc. on aircraft.

Major projects such as the well-known J-10 "Fierce Dragon" fighter, Harmony high-speed train, Shenzhou series spacecraft, and Hangzhou Bay Bridge have all been tested in this wind tunnel base.

In May 2010, the wind tunnel test base underwent several upgrades and started new scientific research construction. Large aircraft models were tested here. There are millions of related data, all of which were entered into the database for classification. Most of the research and development tests of the large passenger aircraft C919 were completed in this wind tunnel.

In 2017, the largest wind tunnel JF-12 was born in Beijing. The wind speed is 10 Mach, equivalent to 10 times the speed of sound. It only takes 2 hours to fly from Beijing to New York. Maintaining strong and stable power is like lighting a match in a tornado. It requires enough wind and the match must burn.

Since 2018, my country has launched a new type of wind tunnel with a speed of 35 times, which has greatly improved its power and precision. The wind speed has increased exponentially, and the aircraft only needs 14 minutes to reach the west coast of the United States. The technical level exceeds that of NASA's supersonic LENS-X wind tunnel.

The most representative FL-62 wind tunnel is powered by an 80,000-kilowatt motor, weighs 6,620 tons, has an internal volume of 17,000 cubic meters, and can generate continuous cross-type wind force, which plays a major role in the research and development of the sixth-generation stealth fighter.

The difference between a 35 times supersonic wind tunnel and a low speed wind tunnel

1. The wind force generated by the low-speed wind tunnel is basically blowing

Ordinary low-speed wind tunnels can be found in schools and companies. The wind speed is generally below 1.2 times the speed of sound. The structure inside is relatively simple. A high-power electric fan is used to generate wind force, which converts subsonic airflow into supersonic airflow through the Laval nozzle, which can basically exceed the standard of the speed of sound. Ordinary low-speed wind tunnels like this only cost a few million dollars to build, and there is no such thing as a wind tunnel that is worth a fortune.

If you want to build a high-speed wind tunnel, the wind speed must reach more than ten times the speed of sound. The airflow generated by the fan alone is limited and cannot reach such a high wind speed.

2. The high-speed wind tunnel is equipped with a pressure tank, which can generate high-speed airflow through pressure.

When we blow up a balloon, the more air there is inside, the greater the pressure difference between the inside and outside. When we open the mouth of the balloon, a strong airflow will escape. High-speed wind tunnels produce strong airflows based on pressure differences, and use pressure tanks to store gas.

This pressure tank is not ordinary. One side is filled with high-pressure gas, and the other side is in a vacuum state. There is a huge pressure difference between the two. When the valve is opened, the high-pressure gas inside will instantly gush to the vacuum end. Under its action, the air flow speed will increase by 3 to 5 times, truly reaching the hypersonic standard.

In addition to basic equipment, large hypersonic wind tunnels also require huge presses, gas tanks, and heating systems. They have complex structures and are much more expensive to build than low-speed wind tunnels.

3. Hypersonic wind tunnel, to get stronger wind force, use the power of explosion

To obtain a hypersonic airflow 20 times faster than the original, vacuum pressure tanks are not enough, so scientists use the power of explosions. As we all know, the power of an atomic bomb explosion is equivalent to 15,000 tons of TNT. If the energy of the explosion is used in a wind tunnel, the strong pressure can generate hypersonic airflow.

At present, for hypersonic wind tunnels with a speed of more than 20 times, the most commonly used method is to seal hydrogen and oxygen through a heating system, put them into special container tanks, and finally explode through combustion to obtain a strong airflow.

There is also a type of wind tunnel that uses shock waves generated by electric arcs as power. It is equipped with ultra-large capacitor equipment and generates 600,000 amperes of current when started. The strong current can also bring high-speed airflow.

Last words

Wind tunnel experiments are the main equipment for building aircraft. The design, manufacturing, and testing of an aircraft are all inseparable from wind tunnels, and their importance is becoming increasingly prominent. There is a saying in the scientific community: What kind of wind tunnel you have, what kind of aircraft and rocket you have, which shows the importance of wind tunnel technology.

China's 35 times the speed of sound wind tunnel, with its advanced science and technology, has become one of the most powerful testing facilities on the ground.

I am proud to live in this powerful motherland!

Source: Cosmic Decoding