Fast Times in Lafayette

On 06 June 2023, the Purdue Applied Research Institute (PARI)—the applied research division of Lafayette, Indiana’s Purdue University—opened a new facility dedicated to enhancing the renowned engineering institution’s world-leading capabilities in the evaluation and testing of hypersonic platforms.

Representatives of Purdue University, the U.S. federal government, and the global aerospace industry joined PARI leadership and staff in celebrating the opening of the Hypersonics and Applied Research Facility (HARF), a $41-million, 65,000-square-foot building housing cutting-edge gadgets the likes of the world’s only Mach 8 quiet wind tunnel and a hypersonic pulse (HYPULSE) reflected shock/expansion wind tunnel.

HARF is also home to the Hypersonics Advanced Manufacturing Technology Center (HAMTC), a single location at which industry partners may work on materials and manufacturing innovations germane to hypersonic endeavors.

PARI CEO Mark Lewis stated: “The Hypersonic Applied Research Facility is an investment in test and evaluation and research capabilities that this country desperately needs. Through facilities such as HARF, we will help solve some of the most challenging and relevant problems in the field of high-speed flight while also building the future workforce.”

In addition to replicating unique conditions peculiar to extremely high-speed propulsion, the HARF tunnels recreate difficult-to-emulate scenarios such as spacecraft re-entry and missile flight through the atmosphere. Similarly, the Mach 8 quiet wind tunnel and the HYPULSE tunnel occasion controlled environments conducive to researching the abstruse facets of high-speed flight—each providing data more accurate than that gathered in conventional hypersonic wind tunnels.

The HYPULSE tunnel recreates specific hypersonic flight conditions by dint of channeling shock-waves of high-temperature air. The mechanism facilitates flight simulations at speeds ranging from Mach 5 to as high as Mach 40. Purdue is the second U.S. university to offer HYPULSE test capabilities.

At HAMTC researchers are afforded opportunity to collaborate with industry partners for purpose of developing materials and pioneering manufacturing innovations. HAMTC is the U.S.’s only vertically-integrated prototyping center that enables the design, manufacturing, joining, and testing of hypersonic components and subsystems in a single location—thereby hastening the maturation technologies from theoretical concepts to actualized products.

Speaking at the HARF opening ceremony, Purdue University president Mung Chiang set forth: “Flying is part of our Boilermaker DNA, whether three-feet above our heads with an autonomous drone or all the way to the moon, and in near-space, too. This is a particularly transformational moment with the opening of HARF, and we are reaffirming here today our unwavering commitment to hypersonic research, testing, and talent development for the United States.”

Largely immune to enemy detection, tracking, targeting, and engagement, hypersonic vehicles operate in the upper reaches of Earth’s atmosphere at speeds in excess of Mach 5. Such systems constitute a top Department of Defense priority insomuch as they connote battlefield dominance and are currently being developed by near-peer adversaries—namely China and Russia.

The HARF building is located in Purdue University’s Discovery Park District—the schools’ ever-evolving mixed-use enclave and home to the Maurice J. Zucrow Laboratories. The Discovery Park District is alternately the current and future home to Purdue partner companies the likes of: Rolls-Royce, Saab, Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, and Stratolaunch—the latter having recently established its Advanced Program Office in the vicinity.

Stratolaunch senior director for advanced programs Joshua Stults remarked: “What's important in a [near-peer adversary] race is going fast, and that's not just flying high, far, and fast, like we at Stratolaunch like to do. It is developing those systems quickly, and that only happens when you have a synergistic combination of design tools, ground test facilities, conceptual design capability, and then flight test validation. Here at Purdue, we're able to find that synergy, build on the strong basis of ground test facilities that are being invested in here in Indiana, and then go build and fly the aircraft.”

HARF will also serve as a training-ground for students pursuing careers in hypersonic research. The facility will add capacity and broaden opportunities for students to engage in hands-on experiential learning.

PARI CEO Mark Lewis concluded: “Students will be involved with research at HARF in almost every step of the way. Universities aren’t just places that present new knowledge, they’re places that create new knowledge, and students are essential to that. One of the things you see here at Purdue is that students at all levels—PhD, graduate, and undergraduate students—are involved in research directly and will be involved directly in the activities at HARF.”

FMI: www.purdue.edu