Visualisation on supersonic flow over backward-facing step with or without roughness

At Mach number 3.4, visualisation experiments of flow over backward-facing step (BFS) with or without roughness band attached on upstream wall are carried out via traditional schlieren and newly developed nano-tracer-based planar laser scattering (NPLS). The time-averaged flow characteristic of the reattachment region and the instantaneous rich structures of the redeveloping boundary layer in the steamwise-normal plane are both revealed. Additionally, top views in the different planes (y/h = 0.67, 1.00, 1.33, 1.67, 2.00) are imaged with a resolution of 0.064 mm/pixel. By contrasting the NPLS images at different times, the unsteady evolution characteristic of the coherent vortices in the redeveloping boundary layer was discussed. Static wall pressure is measured by a micro-pressure scanning system. The incipient formation positions are pointed out statistically. Without roughness, the longitudinal structures with scales of 1.0h and 1.2h form later and distribute in a longer region compared to that with roughness. Fractal analysis is applied and the averaged fractal dimensions of the overall and sectional flow structures are calculated. If roughness is adopted, the fractal dimension will be larger and the turning point in the sectional fractal dimensions is earlier. However, the dimension tends to be one coincided value in the farther downstream.     

Visualization of Supersonic Low-Noise Flow Over Surface-Mounted Two-Dimensional Prisms

An experimental study of supersonic flow over two-dimensional surface-mounted prisms is carried out in a Mach 3 low-noise wind tunnel. The noise level of this supersonic wind tunnel, defined as the root mean-square Pitot pressure fluctuation normalized by the mean Pitot pressure, can be reduced to about 0.37%. The nanotracer planar laser scattering (NPLS) technique is used to analyze the influence of the prism geometry and the oncoming flow conditions on the typical flow structures including separation and reattachment shocks. With increase in the prism height the induced shocks move upstream. At a constant streamwise length L of a prism the timeaveraged NPLS images show that the length of the downstream recirculation region increases from 0.8L to 1.2L, when the prism height H changes from 3 to 5 mm. As compared with the flow structures occurring downstream of the prisms, the upstream flow structures are more susceptible to the oncoming boundary layer and are considerably different in laminar and turbulent flows. The separation shock wave is clearly visible in turbulent flow even for the 1-mm prism, whereas in the case of laminar flow there is no a distinct shock wave upstream of this prism. At the same time, the location of the flow reattachment and the angle of the reattachment shock wave in the downstream flow remain almost the same in both two flow regimes.     

Experimental investigation of supersonic turbulent flow over cylinders with various heights

Journal of Visualization - The unsteady flow structures and pressure fluctuations of the cylinder-induced shock wave/boundary layer interactions (SBLIs) were investigated at Mach 3.4 and 3.8. The...