Experimental investigation of vortex formation in the wake of a flat plate for subsonic and supersonic freestream Mach numbers

The wake of a flat plate with thickness H = 6 mm whose surface was either smooth or rough by pasting smooth or rough paper on to it was investigated with optical methods. The studies showed that for supersonic freestream Mach numbers the wake of the smooth flat plate seems to be turbulent in the observation field. In contrast the wake of the rough plate can exhibit a vortex street if certain conditions are met. The most important parameters are the roughness of the paper and the distance from the location where the rough paper ends to the trailing edge, abbreviated with d. It turned out that a vortex street develops in the wake if the roughness exceeds a critical value and if the distance d is of the order of some millimeters. If these conditions are not met the wake of the rough plate is turbulent in the observation field. The dependence of the vortex formation upon the Mach number, the roughness and the distance d was investigated with holographic interferometry, two component laser-Doppler-anemometry and a laser-optics for measuring the vortex shedding frequency.