Design and CFD simulation of a compact supersonic wind tunnel

This paper aims to design a small-scale, compact supersonic wind tunnel nozzle using the method of characteristics and perform computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations to validate the design. The wind tunnel is designed to have a test section of 7cm × 7cm and a test section Mach number of 2.0. Simulations were performed for both 3D inviscid and viscous cases and it shows that for both cases, the obtained Mach number conforms with the design requirements. A further study on the effects of different pressure ratios, towards the position of shock waves, shows that an increase in the ratio would result the shock waves to shift downstream.