Shock Tube Facilities

The Hanson Research Group is home to five shock tube facilities.  The shock tubes in our laboratory have the capability to precisely generate a wide range of temperature and pressure conditions, spanning 500 K to 10,000+ K and 0.01 atm to 1000+ atm.

These facilities enable cutting-edge research in chemical kinetics, spectroscopy, shockwave dynamics, flame propagation, and laser-based sensing.

Kinetics Shock Tube (KST):

The KST is a heated shock tube that allows researchers in our group to study the detailed kinetics of low-vapor-pressure fuels. This tube has been used to study the fundamental reaction chemistry of jet fuels.

High-Pressure Shock Tube (HPST):

The HPST is a unique facility in our group that can generate high-pressure conditions greater than 1000 atm.  The HPST facility is also heated, allowing us to study low-vapor-pressure fuels at high pressures. The facility is typically used to study high-pressure reaction chemistry and supercritical fluids.

Imaging Shock Tube (IST):

The IST is an optically accessible shock tube used to conduct schlieren and emission-based flame speed imaging experiments. This tube has also been used to conduct complex kinetics experiments that require long test times, a constrained reaction volume (CRV), or aerosolized fuel droplets.

NASA Tube:

The NASA tube is our workhorse for studying high-temperature air chemistry; the measurements obtained using this facility are used to inform models of atmospheric re-entry conditions. The NASA tube has been used to hit temperatures up to 14,000 K -- more than double the surface temperature of the sun!

Flexible-Application Shock Tube (FAST):

The FAST facility is used to study high-temperature spectroscopy and conduct diagnostic validation experiments. This tube is also consistently used to run various kinetics experiments.