Observations of Supersonic Flat Plate Wakes.
Abstract
Observations were made of supersonic flat plate wakes at Mach 3 for both initially laminar and turbulent boundary layer cases by using planar laser Mie scattering. These were then compared with pitot probe and side wall pressure measurements of the wake. Flow visualization experiments included side, plan and end views of the wake. The laminar case generated a supersonic laminar wake that showed an extremely detailed large scale structure including spanwise and streamwise vorticity. Instabilities in the wake caused transition to occur which resulted in the breakdown of the large structure. Due to refraction of the images, only far end views were possible looking upstream, while the side and plan views include both far and close up views. The observations confirmed results seen for the incompressible case and have striking similarities. The observations also confirmed numerical predictions for the supersonic laminar case. The turbulent case showed no large scale structure anywhere in the wake and was observed to be completely random.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 01, 1995
- Accession Number
- ADA303520
Entities
People
- Michael F. Smith
Organizations
- Air Force Institute of Technology