Visualization of the structure of supersonic turbulent boundary layers

A series of flow visualizations has been performed on two flat-plate zero-pressure-gradient supersonic boundary layers. The two different boundary layers had moderate Mach numbers of 2.8 and 2.5 and Re's of 82, 000 and 25, 000 respectively. A number of new visualization techniques were applied. One was a variation of conventional schlieren employing selective cut-off at the knife edge plane. Motion pictures of the flow were generated with this technique. Droplet seeding was also used to mark the flow, and high speed movies were made to show structure evolution. Still pictures were also taken to show details within the large-scale motions. Finally, Rayleigh scattering was used to construct planar images of the flow. Together, these techniques provide detailed information regarding the character and kinematics of the large-scale motions appearing in boundary layers in supersonic flow. Using these data, in concert with existing hot-wire data, some suggestions are made regarding the characteristics of the average large-scale motion.This work was supported by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research under Grant 89-0120, monitored by Dr. James M. McMichael. Also, the authors wish to thank Prof. R. B. Miles for his contributions to the Rayleigh scattering portion of this project.