Hypersonic Boundary Layer Flow Around a Sharp Corner

Author: Puhl, Andreas

Year: 1966

Degree: Engineer's thesis

Advisors: Kubota, Toshi; Lees, Lester

Committee Member: Unknown, Unknown

Option: Aeronautics

DOI: 10.7907/2TPX-DD83

Abstract

An experimental investigation was conducted in the GALCIT Mach 8 hypersonic wind tunnel, in order to study the behavior of an axisymmetric hypersonic, laminar boundary layer flow undergoing a rapid expansion at the juncture of a cone-cylinder body of revolution at zero angle of yaw. Major emphasis was placed on the acquisition of detailed data near the corner where extreme changes in the flow properties were expected. All tests were carried out for two different reservoir pressures but equal total temperature. The basic measurements consist of the model surface pressure and the pitot pressure covering the entire flow field of interest. These informations with certain assumptions were sufficient to construct the flow field.

The surface pressure distribution is in total disagreement with the potential theory from three boundary layer thicknesses upstream of the corner to about fifteen boundary layer thicknesses downstream. The expansion is not concentrated near the corner but extended over the above-mentioned region which is about one and a half cylinder radii long. The pressure immediately downstream of the corner is about seven-tenths of the pressure on the cone, in construct to the two-tenths as predicted by the potential theory.

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