Effect of Porous Coatings on Stability of Hypersonic Boundary Layers

The influence of ultrasoundabsorbing coatings on stability of hypersonic boundary layers is considered. Two types of coatings were used in experiments: feltmetal with a random porous microstructure and a sheet perforated by blind cylindrical microchannels. The experiments were performed in a wind tunnel at a Mach number M = 5.95 on sharp cones with a 7° apex halfangle. Evolution of natural disturbances and artificially induced wave packets in the boundary layer was studied with the help of hotwire anemometry. Spatial characteristics of artificial disturbances were obtained. It is demonstrated that such coatings exert a stabilizing effect on secondmode disturbances.