Laminar-turbulent flow over wedges mounted on sharp and blunt plates

Abstract

The flow pattern and the heat transfer on sharp and blunt flat plates near a wedge in a Mach 6 stream are experimentally investigated for two Reynolds numbers corresponding to the laminar and transitional states of the undisturbed boundary layer ahead of the wedge. It is shown that, as in a two-dimensional flow, plate bluntness leads to the attenuation of the heat transfer in the boundary layer/shock wave interference zone. However, when a certain threshold value of the bluntness is exceeded, a further increase in the bluntness has almost no effect on the heat transfer. For the first time, an experiment conducted in an intermittent (blow-down) wind tunnel has been based on the comprehensive use of panoramic (global) techniques for measuring the heat transfer and pressure coefficients and a method for visualizing the surface friction employing the luminescence effect after UV irradiation.