Experimental Investigation of Flow Interaction Dynamics in Supersonic Retropropulsion

Abstract

Supersonic retropropulsion experiments were performed using a 12.7-cm-diameter 70 deg sphere–cone body with a single jet in the center of the model with a 4:1-area-ratio Laval nozzle directed into a Mach 4 freestream. Data were acquired using high-speed schlieren imaging and direct axial force measurements. Spectral analyses of the total axial force, jet total pressure, and bow shock standoff distance were performed, resulting in the observation of three characteristic modes. For all tests, a dominant frequency in the axial force, independent of the jet and tunnel flow, of 1.9 kHz was observed, which was determined to be a structural vibration mode. A mode at 4.2 kHz in the axial force is observed to correspond to the motion of flow structures, suggesting a coupling between the jet flow and the freestream. A dependency on the presence of the jet and the selection of jet gas is shown for a 13.7 kHz mode, indicating it is acoustic in nature. Proper orthogonal decomposition on the schlieren image data is used to show that the flowfield structures in which dominant modes manifest are dependent on the thrust coefficient.