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Capabilities

Please download the brochure below for more background about APPL and its capabilities.

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APPL brochure.pdf

APPL is equipped with several state of the art experimental rigs, diagnostic instrumentation, and infrastructure. For more detail on any of these see below:

Aerothermal rig with labels for sand injector, water-cooled burner, equilibration tube, and test section.
  • Studies sand ingestion in aircraft engines and interaction with engine hardware
  • Operating temperature – 1500 Kelvin (atmospheric pressure)
  • Sand velocities of 100 m/s targeted
  • Sand deposition and restitution is measured.

Ongoing Research and References

rendering of High Pressure Combustor Rig
Diagram of High Pressure Combustor Rig
  • Capable of continuous operation with pressure up to 10 bar at a flow rate up to 1.2 kg/s
  • Capable of turbine inlet temperatures of 1700°C
  • Water quench system to cool exhaust gas before back pressure valves
  • 3 – 5x8” Rectangular optical access windows at dump plane
Diagrams of Transonic Wind Tunnel

– Heat Transfer and aerodynamic performance of engine hardware is studied in the transonic regime.
– IR thermography used to measure heat transfer in external flow (endwall, blade surface etc)
– Blowdown facility. Operates at 10 lbm/s for 30 seconds.

Photo of Hot Jet Rig
  • Rig provides an open electrically heated jet (700 °F)
  • Variety of experiments performed, e.g., acoustic studies to understand aircraft sound pollution, effect of vertical takeoff/landing on ship decks, acoustic thrust measurement etc.
  • Instruments include stereo-PIV, time-resolved DGV, time-resolved schlieren, background-oriented schlieren, scattering and extinction particle diagnostics, and IR thermography.
Photo of Hypersonic Tunnel

– Operates at Mach 2-7
– Blowdown facility, run time of approximately 2s.
– Electric heater (220/380 V) with capacity 15 – 20 kW provides the flow stagnation temperature up to 800 K to prevent condensation of air at hypersonic speeds.
– Research and Instructional use

Laser Module
The lab hosts extensive laser diagnostics equipment and expertise. Techniques such as high-speed particle-image velocimetry (PIV), phase Doppler particle analysis (PDPA), laser Doppler velocimetry (LDV), filtered Rayleigh scattering (FRS), and laser scattering and extinction particle sizing are developed and used in the lab.
Infrared camera and example image
The lab uses and has expertise with several Infrared Camera from FLIR systems that are used for high resolution thermography and flow visualization. This portfolio includes the FLIR SC6700 series cameras which are capable of detecting near IR which is transmissive through quartz as well as useful for high temperature experiments.
Air compressor outside lab
The lab is supplied with Processed Compressed Air by two Boge Industrial Compressors capable of up-to 2.8lb/s @ 175 psi. 5000 gallon storage tank. Air quality standard ISO standard 8573.1: 1.2.1 with Particulate matter: 1.0 micron filtering, Dewpoint: -40 degF, Oil content: 0.01 ppm

@Researchers: Reserve time on the compressor here.