Browsing by Subject "Boundary Layer"
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Item In-flight Receptivity Experiments on a 30-degree Swept-wing using Micron-sized Discrete Roughness Elements(2010-01-16) Carpenter, Andrew L.One of the last remaining challenges preventing the laminarization of sweptwings is the control of unstable crossflow vortices. In low-disturbance environments the transition from laminar to turbulent flow on the swept-wing initially takes the path of receptivity, where surface roughness or disturbances in the environment introduce shortwavelength disturbances into the boundary layer. This is followed by development and linear growth of stationary crossflow vortices that modify the mean flow, changing the stability characteristics of the boundary layer. Finally, breakdown to turbulence occurs over a short length scale due to the high-frequency secondary instability. The receptivity mechanism is the least understood, yet holds the most promise for providing a laminar flow control strategy. Results of a 3-year flight test program focused on receptivity measurements and laminar flow control on a 30-degree swept-wing are presented. A swept-wing test article was mounted on the port wing of a Cessna O-2A aircraft and operated at a chord Reynolds number of 6.5 to 7.5 million. Spanwise-periodic, micronsized discrete roughness elements were applied at the leading edge of the swept-wing in order to excite the most unstable crossflow wavelength and promote early boundary layer transition. An infrared camera was used to detect boundary-layer transition due to changes in leading-edge roughness. Combined with the IR camera, a new technique of calibrating surface-mounted hotfilms was developed for making disturbance-amplitude measurements downstream of modulated roughness heights. This technique proved to be effective at measuring disturbance amplitudes and can be applied in future tests where instrumentation is limited. Furthermore, laminar flow control was performed with subcritically-spaced roughness. A 100% increase in the region of laminar flow was achieved for some of the conditions tested here.Item Large-Scale Streamwise Turbulent Structures in Hypersonic Boundary Layers(2013-04-22) English, Benjamin L.Prior research in the field of boundary layer turbulence has identified streamwise-elongated large-scale turbulence structures in both low speed compressible and high speed (M=2.0) flow. No experimental work has been done in any flow of M> or =3 in an attempt to identify the presence or quantify the behavior of these structures, nor has any study of favorable pressure gradient or surface roughness element effects on these structures been conducted. This research used high-resolution Particle Imaging Velocimetry in a M = 4.9 blow-down wind tunnel accompanied by a series of data analysis in order to identify the existence of streamwise-elongated large-scale turbulence structures in a hypersonic boundary layer. Furthermore, this study identified physical and statistical behavior which suggests that increasing favorable pressure gradient had a substantial impact on both the structural coherence and relative intensity of these turbulent structures at all boundary layer heights tested. This experiment also identified similar effects on these structures in the lower half of the boundary layer as a result of the introduction of surface roughness elements. Finally, several trends were identified between the averaged turbulence statistics and the behavior of the large-scale streamwise-elongated turbulence structures present in this study.