Imaging of supersonic flow over a double elliptic surface

The coherent structures of flow over a double elliptic surface are experimentally investigated in a supersonic lownoise wind tunnel at Mach number 3 using nano-tracer planar laser scattering(NPLS)and particle image velocimetry(PIV)techniques.High spatiotemporal resolution images and velocity fields of both laminar and turbulent inflows over the test model are captured.Based on the time-correlation images,the spatial and temporal evolutionary characteristics of the coherent structures are investigated.The flow structures in the NPLS images are in good agreement with the velocity fluctuation fields by PIV.From statistically significant ensembles,spatial correlation analysis of both cases is performed to quantify the mean size and the orientation of coherent structures.The results indicate that the mean structure is elliptical in shape and the structural angles in the separated region of laminar inflow are slightly smaller than that of turbulent inflow.Moreover,the structural angles of both cases increase with their distance away from the wall.