FACILITIES OF THE NATIONAL TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY ‘KHARKIV POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE’, THAT HAVE THE STATUS OF ‘NATIONAL PROPERTY OF THE STATE’:
1. Research and Design Institute ‘Molniya’
The experimental base of the Molniya Research and Development Institute contains unique simulators of powerful electromagnetic interference, high currents and high voltages from sources of natural and artificial origin, which allow conducting field tests, including certification tests, of a wide class of objects from radio-electronic components to aerospace equipment in terms of electromagnetic compatibility and resistance to meet the requirements of national, interstate and international regulations: generators of artificial lightning with an operating voltage of 14 m.
In 1999, the experimental facilities of the Institute were classified as ‘National Assets of the State’ by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. The Institute has a Certification Testing Centre accredited by the State Standard of Ukraine in the UkrSEPRO System for independence and technical competence to conduct certification tests of industrial, national economic, cultural, household and medical products, including aerospace objects for compliance with electromagnetic compatibility requirements. Since 2001, Molniya has been cooperating with the China Space Science and Technology Corporation to share an experimental base for testing Chinese space technology and protecting it from static and atmospheric electricity.
The Institute carries out work: in thefield of lightning protection of new generation aircraft made of composite materials in the interests of the American Boeing Corporation; to provide lightning protection for wind turbines as an alternative form of electricity generation; with Antonov ASTC and Yuzhnoye State Design Bureau in DniproDnipropetrovs’k on ensuring electromagnetic stability and compatibility of space equipment and aircraft, etc. As a result of the above-mentioned works, the total volume of economic contractual works per year reaches more than UAH 2 million.
2. Institute of the Ionosphere
The experimental base has no analogues in Ukraine and is the only incoherent scattering facility in the middle latitudes of the European region: the world’s largest 100 m diameter dual-mirror parabolic antenna for studying ionospheric fer up to 1500 km; a 25 m diameter full-rotating antenna that allows studying the spatial characteristics of the ionosphere within a radius of 700-1000 km; a powerful short-wave radiation unit for modifying ionospheric parameters and an automatic ionospheric probe station. At the same time, the main ionospheric parameters are measured over a wide range of altitudes: electron concentration Ne, kinetic temperatures of electrons Te and ions Ti, plasma transport velocity Vi, electric currents in the plasma, frequency of particle collisions, heat and plasma fluxes.
The research is carried out under international cooperation programmes with scientists from the USA (Haystack Observatory of the University of Massachusetts, Arecibo Observatory of Cornell University), Russia (Institute of Solar-Terrestrial Physics of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences), Kazakhstan (Institute of Ionosphere of the Ministry of Science and the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Kazakhstan) and other countries. The results of the work are recognised by the world scientific community. They are used for fundamental research into the physics of solar-terrestrial communications and for the development of global ionospheric models. In 2001, the experimental facilities of the Ionosphere Institute were classified as ‘National Assets of the State’ by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.
The scientific significance of the research complex for studying gas-dynamic and thermal processes in turbomachines is marked by the advanced areas of experimental and theoretical research of turbomachines. The R&D complex includes unique experimental equipment: a powerful compressor facility; a research and experimental base; and a modular-type training and experimental laboratory. New highly economical turbine stages with ‘reverse spin’, unique wide-mode final stages for high-speed and low-speed turbines with blade lengths of 1030 mm and 1450 mm, and a new type of device for measuring the relative elongation of the turbine rotor have been developed. Experimental research using modern methods allows us to create highly economical stages for turbines under design, as well as for the modernisation of turbines in operation at Ukrainian power plants. The experimental base of the research complex for the study of gas-dynamic and thermal processes in turbomachines was classified as a ‘National Asset of the State’ by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine in 2006.