Lecture Series STO 218 on Radiation and gas-surface interaction phenomena in high-speed reentry

The Lecture Series AVT-218 on “Radiation and gas-surface interaction phenomena in high-speed reentry” was held at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, IL, USA from April 7th to 9th, 2014.

High Speed re-entry represents a current challenge for space exploration programs. At such flight conditions shock layer radiation becomes a substantial part of the heat-transfer to the wall in addition to the Gas-Surface interaction (GSI) phenomena, with possible coupling effects.

The objective of this special course focused on the extreme re-entry situations where the physical phenomena are much more pronounced and start to interplay. The ground testing capabilities and limitations for high speed re-entry were reviewed with the associated instrumentation. Radiation modeling as well as the modeling development for GSI in such conditions were presented. The consistent integration of those high fidelity models into CFD codes were inspected with their reliability to provide accurate ground-to-flight extrapolation.

The lectures Series team was led by Prof. Olivier Chazot and Prof. Thierry Magin from the von Karman Institute and by Dr. Marco Panesi from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. Specialists from Belgium and USA were invited to present a lecture: Prof. I. Boyd, Prof. O. Chazot, Dr. B. Cruden, Prof. J.R. Howell, Dr. Richard Jaffe, Dr. C. O. Johnston, Prof. T. E. Magin, Prof. A. Martin, Dr. F. Panerai, Prof. M. Panesi,  Dr. D. Prabhu and Prof. T. Schwartzentruber. The event was attended by 52 participants, among them 12 lecturers, from Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, United Kingdom and the United States.

Lecture Series STO 234 on Hypersonic Flight testing

The Lecture Series AVT-234 on “Hypersonic Flight Testing” was held in Rhode-St-Genèse, near Brussels, Belgium from March 24th to 27, 2014. This  special course aims at reviewing the recent hypersonic flight research programs, address the fundamental differences between ground and in-sky testing, report on  the different mission design methodologies and the constraints associated with the realities of hypersonic flights.

Hypersonic flight experiments benefit from the recent technology developments in materials, computational power, miniaturisation, etc. that have significantly reduced the level of cost and resources required for such testing. They appear  more and more attractive as a research activity, in association with wind tunnel and CFD activities.

This recent trend can be illustrated by the increased number of hypersonic research programs: X-51, HIFiRE, SHEFFEX, SCRAMSPACE, EXPERT, IXV, LEA, USV, etc. Translating a laboratory experiment into the sky imposes severe design constraints on the payload, typically affecting its environmental conditions (pressure, temperature, acceleration, etc.), packaging and resources (mass, energy & data).

Famous lecturers were invited from Belgium, Germany, France, The Netherlands and USA. Among them Charles J. Camarda, NASA Astronaut, served as a back-up crew member for Expedition 8 of the International Space Station. His first space flight was STS-114, NASA's "return to flight" mission following the loss of Space Shuttle Columbia.

The lectures Series team was led by Prof. Olivier Chazot from the von Karman Institute and by Dr. Sandy Tirtey from University of Queensland. The event was attended by 28 participants from Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Portugal, Spain, Turkey and United Kingdom.

Jean Ginoux Lecture: Future challenges for space transportation and associated research & development needs

Japanese delegation from Tohuku University

On Monday February 24, 2014, the von Karman Institute had the pleasure to welcome a Japanese delegation from Tohuku University lead by Prof. Keisuke Asai, Department of Aerospace Engineering and Prof. Shigeru Obayashi, Institute of Fluid Sciences.

Open Day: March 8th, 2014

On Saturday March 8^th, 2014 from 10:00am to 3:00pm, the VKI will open its doors in the framework of the "Luchtvaartdag" organized by the Flemish government and the aviation's sector. VKI will offer you to visit some labs and wind tunnels where tests in the field of aviation are performed. Guided tours will be in Dutch, English and French.