Stabilizing controller using backstepping for steady mass flow in a wind tunnel

Abstract

Wind tunnels are being used to study the aerodynamic properties of race cars, fighter planes etc. Hypersonic wind tunnels operate at hypersonic speeds ie, with a mach number greater than 6. For doing experiments, it is necessary to maintain a constant pressure in the settling chamber of the tunnel so that we get the desired mach number and mass flow rate through the nozzle. The Back stepping control is a systematic and recursive design methodology for nonlinear feedback control. Here, a back stepping controller is designed using the stabilizing approach and the mass flow rate of hypersonic intermittent blow down type wind tunnel is controlled.