Experimental investigation of turbulence in a supersonic flow

The structure of disturbances carried by the flow into the working section of a supersonic wind tunnel has been investigated by means of a constant-current hot-wire anemometer. In order to generate the disturbances grids consisting of round rods were introduced upstream from the nozzle throat. It was found that in the working section the disturbances consist of non-correlating vortex, entropy and acoustic modes. The latter is generated by the boundary layer on the nozzle walls and the first two by the grids. The spectral compositions of the various modes are compared. Because of the presence of grid turbulence the point of laminar-turbulent transition in the boundary layer on a flat plate varied widely.Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 3, pp. 119–124, May–June, 1990.     

Experimental investigation of nonstationary flow in cavities in a supersonic flow

An experimental investigation was made into the flow and pressure pulsations in cylindrical cavities open toward a supersonic flow and set up at zero angle of attack (i.e., the cavity axis and the direction of the flow coincide).Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 5, pp. 180–183, September–October, 1979.     

Experimental investigation of CO vibrational deactivation in a supersonic cooling gas flow

Abstract. The vibrational relaxation time of CO molecules at collisions with H atoms was measured in shock tube experiments by means of the CARS-spectroscopy method. The measurements of the CO vibrational temperature at gas temperatures of 1800–3000 K were performed in a supersonic cooling gas flow. The gas was heated behind the incident and reflected shock wave and then flowed out of a wedge-shaped nozzle. H atoms were generated in the reflected shock wave because of dissociation of H and HO admixtures. The extremely high efficiency of H atoms in CO vibrational deactivation was confirmed. Received 1 February 2000 / Accepted 20 February 2000     

Experimental investigation of single-mode panel flutter in supersonic gas flow

Panel flutter theory distinguishes between two types of the loss of stability, namely, the flutter of the coupled type and the single-mode flutter. The flutter of the coupled type is well studied, both theoretically and experimentally. The single-mode flutter has been theoretically studied only quite recently. This study is devoted to the experimental investigation of the single-mode panel flutter. The fact of its generation under actual conditions is established and the stability range is determined.     

Experimental investigation of boundary-layer transition at supersonic velocities

It is usually assumed that for geometrically similar bodies the state of the boundary layer and the location of the laminar-turbulent transition region are determined by the principal similarity parameters-the Mach M and Reynolds Re numbers. However, it has recently been found that at supersonic velocities the parameter (/U), calculated from the free-stream velocity and viscosity and having the dimension of length, has a considerable influence on the transition.Novosibirsk. Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR. Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 2, pp. 30–34, March–April, 1972.     

Experimental investigation of supersonic flow past blunt bodies with strong distributed injection

The entry of bodies into planetary atmospheres at high supersonic velocities is accompanied by intense evaporation of the surface due to radiative heat fluxes. A series of problems involving the conduction of investigations of such kind has been proposed by Petrov. In [1], in particular, the entry of a meteorite into an atmosphere was examined. The gasdynamic aspects of this problem have been approximately simulated by many authors by intense injection of gas in theoretical, e.g., [2–5], and experimental [6, 7] studies. The theoretical studies were based on two-layer [3, 4] or three-layer [5] schemes of gas flow between the shock wave and the surface of the body. The aim of the present work was an experimental investigation of the interaction of injection with a counter supersonic flow.Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 3, pp. 84–95, May–June, 1978.     

Experimental investigation on flow characteristics in a narrow annulus

Experiments are carried out to investigate the flow characteristics with/without heat exchange in a narrow annulus. In the experiments, directions of flow include horizontal, upstream and downstream flow. Experimental results show that the flow characteristics of water through the narrow annulus are different from those in normal tubes. Flow directions have little influences on the flow friction for the fluid flow in the narrow annulus with/without heat exchange. The flow characteristics in the narrow annulus have relations to the liquid temperature difference at the inlet and outlet of the annulus. Their influences on the flow characteristics are relatively obvious in the laminar flow area. When the Reynolds number is larger than 10⁴, there are little differences between the flow friction factors with/without heat exchange. It is also found that the asymmetrical flow can make the friction factor increase, whereas the symmetrical flow can reduce the flow friction. In the experiments, the transition from laminar to turbulent flow is carefully observed. In the narrow annulus, the flow transition is initiated earlier than that in normal pipes at a Reynolds number range from 1,100 to 1,500, which is different from the heat transfer transition. The results are gained to provide bases for the further investigations on the two-phase flow in narrow annuli.     

Experimental investigation of some singularities of the supersonic flow around V-shaped wings

Some results are presented of an experimental investigation of the stream configuration in a supersonic flow over the windward and leeward sides of V-shaped wings.     

Experimental investigation of three-dimensional supersonic flow of a gas in the interference region of intersecting surfaces

A contemporary high-speed aircraft represents a complex three-dimensional configuration, where supersonic gas flow is accompanied by numerous local flow interaction zones, in particular, near the intersection of different surfaces. Such a flow is characterized by three-dimensional systems of shock and expansion waves, and close to the surfaces one finds interaction of boundary layers and, above all, interaction of shock waves with the boundary layer. In general, the angular configurations are formed by intersection or contact of nonplanar surfaces with swept-back or blunted leading edges. This makes it practically impossible to obtain a rigorous theoretiical solution to the problem of gas flow over these surfaces, and presents considerable difficulty in an experimental investigation. It is therefore of interest to study the physical features of gas flow in corner configurations of very simple form [1–3]. The present paper examines the results of an experimental investigation of typical features of symmetric and asymmetric interaction of compressive, expansive, and mixed flows in the interference region of planar surfaces intersecting at an angle of less than 180?.     

Experimental investigation of the flow characteristics within a vortex tube with different configurations

The energy separation in a vortex tube is a combined result of different factors and its explanation remains debatable. As a classical fluid mechanics phenomenon, understanding of the complex helical flow mechanism within a vortex tube is a necessary foundation. The small scale of an industrial vortex tube and the extremely complex flow conditions are the two main challenges in obtaining the internal flow properties. This paper reports the results of an experimental investigation on the flow behaviour within a confined cylindrical system having different configurations corresponding to the actual flow field in a vortex tube at different conditions. Transparent devices were used to enable flow visualisation and Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) measurement. The results of the flow visualisation and PIV experiments show that a precessing vortex core is significant only in a specific range of swirling strength. A good agreement between the observed flow characteristics and previously published results was observed.     

Experimental investigation of three-dimensional supersonic flow past an axisymmetric body with an annular cavity

The results of an experimental investigation of supersonic Mach 2.5 flow past an axisymmetric cylindrical model body with a rectangular annular cut-out on its lateral surface are presented. The evolution of the structure of the flow over the cavity with continuous variation in the angle of attack is studied on the basis of the data of flow visualization and balance measurements on the range of the relative cavity lengths L/h from 8 to 16. Hysteresis phenomena are revealed and analyzed.     

Flow investigation in separation zones ahead of supersonic jets in a subsonic stream

The flow in the three-dimensional separation zone of a turbulent boundary layer on a plate in front of a supersonic jet injected perpendicularly to the subsonic drifing flow is considered. The purpose of the investigation is to establish the physical singularities of subsonic flow around a supersonic jet obstacle and to obtain dependences of the geometric flow characteristics on the free-stream and injected-jet parameters. Results of an experimental investigation permitted proposing approximate dependences of the geometric three-dimensional separation-zone characteristics which appear in the subsonic stream ahead of a jet obstacle.