BODY SHAPE EFFECTS ON AXISYMMETRIC WAKES

Abstract

Experimental measurements have been made of the distance of transition to turbulence of the wake behind hypersonic spherical and blunted cone models at hypersonic speeds in a ballistic range. Transition distances behind blunt bodies were found to be independent of body shape, whereas a definite shape effect was observed for slender bodies. A single shape parameter was determined which successfully correlated all the slender body data. The transition process was found to be markedly different between blunt and slender body flows, the transition occurring rather abruptly behind blunt bodies and being extended over many body diameters for slender bodies. In all cases, the transition distances were independent of body size and flight speed. The correlations were found to break down at high Reynolds numbers where turbulence originated at the recompression region. A method of using the distance to transition in clean wakes to discriminate between blunt and slender bodies is outlined. (Author)

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Oct 01, 1964
Accession Number
AD0450558

Entities

People

  • L. N. Wilson

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Blunt Bodies
  • Bodies
  • Body Regions
  • Boundary Layer
  • Flight Speeds
  • Flow Fields
  • Fluid Dynamics
  • Fluid Flow
  • Jet Propulsion
  • Mach Number
  • Measurement
  • Military Research
  • Physics
  • Physics Laboratories
  • Reynolds Number
  • Slender Bodies

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Fluid Mechanics and Fluid Dynamics.

Technology Areas

  • Hypersonics
  • Hypersonics - Hypersonic Boundary Layers
  • Hypersonics - Hypersonic Flight