Pressure measurement is the measurement of an applied force by a fluid on a surface. Pressure is typically measured in units of force per unit of surface area. Many techniques have been developed for the measurement of pressure and vacuum. Instruments used to measure and display pressure mechanically are called pressure gauges,vacuum gauges or compound gauges. The widely used Bourdon gauge is a mechanical device, which both measures and indicates and is probably the best known type of gauge.
A vacuum is space devoid of matter. The word is derived from the Latin adjective vacuus meaning "vacant" or "void". An approximation to such vacuum is a region with a gaseous pressure much less than atmospheric pressure. Physicists often discuss ideal test results that would occur in a perfect vacuum, which they sometimes simply call "vacuum" or free space, and use the term partial vacuum to refer to an actual imperfect vacuum as one might have in a laboratory or in space. In engineering and applied physics on the other hand, vacuum refers to any space in which the pressure is considerably lower than atmospheric pressure. The Latin term in vacuo is used to describe an object that is surrounded by a vacuum.
The Ames Research Center (ARC), also known as NASA Ames, is a major NASA research center at Moffett Federal Airfield in California's Silicon Valley. It was founded in 1939 as the second National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) laboratory. That agency was dissolved and its assets and personnel transferred to the newly created National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on October 1, 1958. NASA Ames is named in honor of Joseph Sweetman Ames, a physicist and one of the founding members of NACA. At last estimate NASA Ames had over US$3 billion in capital equipment, 2,300 research personnel and a US$860 million annual budget.
In pipeline transportation, pigging is the practice of using pipeline inspection gauges or gadgets, devices generally referred to as pigs or scrapers, to perform various maintenance operations. This is done without stopping the flow of the product in the pipeline.
Space Power Facility (SPF) is a NASA facility used to test spaceflight hardware under simulated launch and spaceflight conditions. The SPF is part of NASA's Neil A. Armstrong Test Facility, which in turn is part of the Glenn Research Center. The Neil A. Armstrong Test Facility and the SPF are located near Sandusky, Ohio.
North Oscura Peak, is a summit in the Oscura Mountains in Socorro County, New Mexico is the location of an Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) site in the northern portion of the White Sands Missile Range. It rises to an elevation of 7,976 feet.
The Twenty-Five-Foot Space Simulator is a chamber for testing spacecraft in space-like conditions, including extreme cold, high radiation, and near-vacuum pressure. Built in 1961, it is located at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. It has been used to prepare many American space probes for their launches, including the Ranger, Surveyor, Mariner, and Voyager spacecraft.
The Zero Gravity Research Facility at the NASA Glenn Research Center, in Cleveland, Ohio, is a unique facility designed to perform tests in a reduced gravity environment. It has successfully supported research for United States crewed spacecraft programs and numerous uncrewed projects. The facility uses vertical drop tests in a vacuum chamber to investigate the behavior of systems, components, liquids, gases, and combustion in microgravity.
The Space Environment Simulation Laboratory (SESL) is a facility in Building 32 at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center that can perform large-scale simulations of the vacuum and thermal environments that would be encountered in space. Built in 1965, it was initially used to test Apollo Program spacecraft and equipment in a space environment, and continues to be used by NASA for testing equipment. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1985.
The United States Navy Experimental Diving Unit is the primary source of diving and hyperbaric operational guidance for the US Navy. It is located within the Naval Support Activity Panama City in Panama City Beach, Bay County, Florida.
AEDC Range G is a two-stage light-gas gun owned by the United States Air Force.
AEDC Hypervelocity Wind Tunnel 9 is a hypersonic wind tunnel owned by the United States Air Force and operated by National Aerospace Solutions The facility can generate high Mach numbers and high Reynolds for hypersonic ground testing and the validation of computational simulations for the Air Force and Department of Defense.
The High-Enthalpy Arc-Heated Facilities at Arnold Engineering Development Complex provide aerothermal ground test simulations of hypersonic flight over a wide range of velocities and pressure altitudes in support of materials and structures development. The facility is composed of three Arc Heaters: HEAT-H1, HEAT-H2, and Heat-H3 which can heat air up to 13,000 degrees Rankine through a controlled high voltage direct current electric arc discharge. The test unit is owned by the United States Air Force and operated by National Aerospace Solutions.
The von Karman Gas Dynamics Facility at Arnold Engineering Development Complex, Arnold Air Force Base, Tennessee, provide aerothermal ground test simulations of hypersonic flight over a wide range of velocities and pressure altitudes. The facility consists of three Hypersonic wind tunnels: Tunnel A, B, and C. The wind tunnels can be run for several hours at a time thanks to a 92,500 horsepower air compressor plant system. The test unit is owned by the United States Air Force and operated by National Aerospace Solutions.
The Propulsion Wind Tunnel Facility, located at Arnold Engineering Development Complex, Arnold Air Force Base, Tennessee, holds three wind tunnels: the 16-foot transonic (16T), 16-foot supersonic (16S), and the aerodynamic 4-foot transonic (4T) tunnels. The facility is devoted to aerodynamic and propulsion integration testing of large-scale aircraft models. The tunnels are powered by a large compressor plant which allows the wind tunnels to run for extended periods of time. The test unit is owned by the United States Air Force and operated by Aerospace Testing Alliance.
The Aero-propulsion Systems Test Facility, located at Arnold Engineering Development Complex is a unique national facility designed to test aircraft propulsion systems in true mission environments without leaving the ground. The test unit is owned by the United States Air Force and operated by National Aerospace Solutions.
The AEDC Sea Level Test Cells, located at Arnold Engineering Development Complex, is a collection of test cells used to economically perform durability testing on large augmented turbine engines at near sea level conditions. All test units in the facility are owned by the United States Air Force and currently operated by National Aerospace Solutions.
ISRO Satellite Integration and Testing Establishment (ISITE) is an integrated satellite testing facility established under the aegis of ISRO Satellite Center by Indian Space Research Organisation in 2006. Started with an area of 1000 sq ft. at the time when the Aryabhatta satellite was launched, the testing facility is spread over 100-acre and can integrate and test six satellites of the INSAT class at different stages simultaneously: 2 communications, 2 remote sensing and 2 foreign satellites. The investment on the facility is so far about Rs 220 crore and ISRO plans to make a further investment of Rs 100 crore. The facility has also carried out vibration and acoustic tests of Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) spacecraft.
The MARHy Hypersonic low density Wind Tunnel, located at the ICARE Laboratory in Orléans, France, is a research facility used extensively for fundamental and applied research of fluid dynamic phenomena in rarefied compressible flows. Its name is an acronym for Mach Adaptable Rarefied Hypersonic, and the wind tunnel is recorded under this name in the European portal MERIL.
The PHEDRA High Enthalpy low density Wind Tunnel, located at the ICARE Laboratory in Orléans, France, is a research facility used extensively for fundamental and applied research on non equilibrium plasma flows and planetary atmospheric entries. Its name is an acronym for soufflerie à Plasma Hors Equilibre de Rentreés Atmosphériques. Phedra wind tunnel takes part of the European Landscape Network portal MERIL.
