Swept Fin-Induced Shock/Boundary-Layer Separation Control Using Corotating Vortex Generators

Abstract

An experimental investigation was conducted to assess the effectiveness of an array of corotating and counter-rotating vanes in controlling a swept-shock-wave interaction induced by an 11 deg semi-infinite sharp fin in a Mach 2.05 flow. The control array was located all along the conical interaction line upstream of the swept interaction. For the corotating configuration, a parametric study was conducted to access the variation in 1) height of , 0.5, and 0.75; 2) vane angle of , 24, and 30 deg; and 3) vane spacing on control effectiveness. For the counter-rotating configuration, only the effect of the vane height was studied. The array of corotating rectangular vane vortex generators (VGs) with closely spaced vanes of significantly reduced the plateau pressure in the entire interaction region as compared to no control with a maximum reduction of 44% at for and in a separation shock strength of nearly 70% at for . Contrary to the corotating VGs, the counter-rotating VG array significantly pushed the separation line downstream in the conical interaction zone: the effect of which increased with an increase in vane height. This squeezing of the swept flow toward the fin significantly increases the plateau pressure and the separation shock strength, respectively, and is not favorable. For , the shock strength increases by 50% as compared to no control.