The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research – National Aerospace Laboratories (CSIR-NAL) in Bengaluru had carried out more than 3,000 wind tunnel tests to characterise the Launch Vehicle Mark 3 (LVM3), which carried the Chandrayaan-3 module from Sriharikota on Friday.
The LVM3 testing started in 2001 at the trisonic wind tunnel at CSIR-NAL, which has been the workhorse for all national aerospace programmes since 1967, CSIR-NAL said. Trisonic wind tunnels are systems that test the aerodynamics of spacecraft by characterising scaled models.
“More than 3,000 wind tunnel tests were carried out to characterise the LVM3 vehicle, which included force measurements, steady and unsteady pressure measurements, booster-load measurements, booster misalignment studies, aero-elastic and nozzle load studies, apart from surface and off-surface flow visualisation studies,” CSIR-NAL said.
Based on the wind tunnel tests, the configuration underwent major design changes during 2014–2015, and following modifications, the structure was cleared for the test flight.
“All stages of LVM3 with the Chandrayaan-3 payload fairing were acoustically characterised in this facility and cleared for launch which was crucial for the mission,” CSIR-NAL said.
The facility is designed to provide advanced technology solutions to national aerospace programmes like fighter aircraft, defence systems, launch vehicles and space systems.