Control of Boundary Layers for Aero-optical Applications

Abstract

This report presents results of systematic experimental studies of various passive mitigation techniques to reduce aero-optical effects caused be turbulent boundary layers. Parametric studies of Large-Eddy Break-Up devices showed that aero-optical distortions can be suppressed by 45 percent for several boundary layer thicknesses. It was shown that moderate cooling of the wall also reduces aero-optical distortions by 60 percent . A model to predict effects of non-adiabatic walls, both full and partial, over a range of subsonic and supersonic Mach numbers was developed and shown to correctly predict experimentally-observed reductions. Heating the wall allows extending the use of wavefront sensors into low subsonic speeds. Using this technique, aero-optical effects of boundary layers at low (1,700-8,000) Reynolds numbers, were investigated. Simultaneous velocity-optical measurements revealed that large-scale vortical structures are mostly responsible for aero-optical distortions and also indicated that the pressure fluctuations inside these vortical structures might be significant.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 23, 2015
Accession Number
AD1013314

Entities

People

  • Beverley McKeon
  • Stanislav Gordeyev

Organizations

  • University of Notre Dame

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • C4I
  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Boundary Layer
  • Computational Fluid Dynamics
  • Flow Visualization
  • Fluid Dynamics
  • Fluid Flow
  • Fluid Mechanics
  • Hypervelocity Flow
  • Mach Number
  • Measurement
  • Mechanics
  • Optical Phenomena
  • Optical Properties
  • Reynolds Number
  • Three Dimensional
  • Turbulent Flow
  • Turbulent Mixing
  • Two Dimensional

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Fluid Mechanics and Fluid Dynamics.
  • Image Processing and Computer Vision.

Technology Areas

  • Hypersonics