Experimental and computational study of a swept compression corner interaction flowfield

Abstract

The results of an experimental and computational study of the three-dimensional shock-wave/turbulent boundary-layer interaction generated by a swept compression corner are presented. This corner had a streamwise compression angle of 24 deg and a sweepback angle of 40 deg. Two equilibrium incoming turbulent boundary layers with thicknesses varying by 3:1 were used. In both cases the freestream Mach number was 2.95, the freestream Reynolds number was 63xl0/m, and the wall temperature was close to adiabatic. This study was undertaken to test the applicability to flowfield features of a Reynolds number similarity law originally based on surface features only. A second goal of the study was to test the ability of a state-of-the-art numerical solution of the Navier-Stokes equations to predict the subject flow. The experimental results, composed primarily of flowfield pitot pressure and yaw angle surveys, confirmed the general applicability of the similarity law. The comparison of experiment and computation revealed that the latter captured may of the qualitative features of the flow. Further, only very limited reasons were found to prefer a two-equation eddy-viscosity turbulence model rather than an algebraic model for predictions of this flow.