Laminar-turbulent transition in the boundary layer on cones in a hypersonic flow at high Reynolds numbers per meter

The laminar-turbulent transition is experimentally studied in boundary-layer flows on cones with a rectangular axisymmetric step in the base part of the cone and without the step. The experiments are performed in an A-1 two-step piston-driven gas-dynamic facility with adiabatic compression of the working gas with Mach numbers at the nozzle exit M _∞ = 12–14 and pressures in the settling chamber P₀ = 60–600 MPa. These values of parameters allow obtaining Reynolds numbers per meter near the cone surface equal to Re _1e = (53–200) · 10⁶ m ⁻¹. The transition occurs at Reynolds numbers Re _tr = (2.3–5.7) · 10⁶. __________ Translated from Prikladnaya Mekhanika i Tekhnicheskaya Fizika, Vol. 48, No. 3, pp. 76–83, May–June, 2007.