Survey of high-enthalpy shock facilities in the perspective of radiation and chemical kinetics investigations

This contribution is a survey of the capabilities of the main facilities, shock-tubes, shock-tunnels, expansion tubes and hot-shots that allow the experimental investigation of chemical kinetics and radiation of hypersonic flows encountered during atmospheric entry. At first, the capabilities of the main facilities available in Australia, Asia, Europe, and United States, have been surveyed using the available literature, and the specific use of each facility identified. The second step of the study consists in an analysis of each type of shock facility to identify their advantages and drawbacks. The main objective of this analysis is to support a trade-off for the selection of the type of facility to be developed in order to give Europe a ground test with the capabilities to support future exploration and sample return missions. The last point of the study has been to identify the experimental datasets related to the targeted application, and to select the most attractive for the validation of the future facility. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.