Recent advances in detonation techniques for high-enthalpy facilities

Detonations can be used to generate a high-pressure gas of high acoustic speed to drive a shock tube. Recently, detonation driven facilities have been implemented for meaningful hypervelocity testing. These facilities Fan be operated with the detonation wave propagating either downstream or upstream. The advantages and problems associated with these methods art discussed. In addition to a performance comparison between these two modes, comparisons with other high-performance techniques, such as free piston and gun tunnels, are also made. At present, detonation driven facilities are generally of lower performance than free piston tunnels, However, they appear easier to operate and have a lower capital investment.