Shock Tunnel Operation and Correlation of Boundary Layer Transition on a Cone in Hypervelocity Flow

The Caltech T5 reflected shock tunnel is used to produce hypervelocity flow over a range of velocities and pressures by varying the test gas and operating parameters of reservoir enthalpy (hres) and reservoir pressure (Pres). One area of research in T5 is the measurement of boundary layer behavior and transition from laminar to turbulent flow on a smooth 5-degree half-angle cone [3, 1, 11]. To design experiments that involve the measurement or manipulation of instability and transition processes (for example, Jewell et al. [7]), it is important to choose tunnel conditions for which the expected transition location is at least approximately known. In the present paper, we discuss the selection of tunnel operating parameters, the correlation of those parameters with measurements of boundary layer transition, and some observations on the analysis of transition location in terms of local boundary layer properties.
The original document contains color images. Presented at the 29th International Shock Wave Symposium held in Madison, WI on 14-19 July 2013. Prepared in cooperation with the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena.