A new type of high-enthalpy continuous wind tunnel is being developed at the von Karman Institute, cofunded by ESA and the Belgian government to provide an unpolluted facility capable of testing TPS samples for future reentry missions. The facility was designed to meet specific total pressure and stagnation point heat flux conditions and a computer model has been written to allow the determination of all flow parameters. The code uses an engineering approach of quasi-one-dimensional nozzle with inviscid and adiabatic flow of high-temperature air in thermal and chemical equilibrium and includes a calculation of heat flux rates based on Fay and Riddell's formulation which, to be accurately used, needed an analytic expression for the velocity gradient for a supersonic flow impinging on the flat base of a cylinder. The model has been validated against measurements taken in Russian facilities. It predicts values of stagnation point heat fluxes with an accuracy of 15%, including all errors due to the thermodynamic model, transport properties and all simplifying hypotheses of the method. The code has been used to predict the aerothermodynamic conditions necessary to achieve the desired goals in subsonic and supersonic conditions. It has also been used for the design of other components of the facility.

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The paper presents an overview of the aerothermal plasma simulation facilities in use at the von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics and the main research topics that have been followed during 10 years of work in the field. Both numerical simulation of plasma flows and experimental techniques are addressed, with an emphasis of the methodology which allows to relate measurements in the facilities to flight conditions of a space vehicle (re-)entering a planetary atmosphere.