Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Hypersonic boundary-layer transition'

This thesis focuses on secondary instability mechanisms of high-speed boundary layers over cones with a circular cross section. Hypersonic transition investigations at Mach 8 are performed using Direct Numerical Simulations (DNS). At wind-tunnel conditions, these simulations allow for comparison with experimental measurements to verify fundamental stability characteristics.To better understand geometrical influences, flat-plate and cylindrical geometries are studied using after-shock conditions of the conical investigations. This allows for a direct comparison with the results of the sharp cone to evaluate the influence of the spanwise curvature and the cone opening angle. The ratio of the boundary-layer thickness to the spanwise radius is used to determine the importance of spanwise curvature effects. When advancing in the downstream direction the radius increaseslinearly while the boundary-layer thickness stays almost constant. Hence, spanwise curvature effects are strongest close to the nose and decrease in downstream direction. Their influences on the secondary instability mechanisms provide some rudimentary guidance in the design of future high-speed air vehicles.In experiments, blunting of the nose tip of the circular cone results in an increase in critical Reynolds number (c.f. Stetson et al. (1984)). However, once a certain threshold of the nose radius is exceeded, the critical Reynolds number decreases even to lower values than for the sharp cone. So far, conclusive explanations for this behavior could not be derived based on the available experimental data. Therefore, here DNS is used to study the effect of nose bluntness on secondary instability mechanisms in order to shed light on the underlying flow physics. To this end, three different nose tip radii are considered-the sharp cone, a small nose radius and a large nose radius. A small nose radius moves the transition on-set downstream, while for a large nose radius the so-called transition reversal is observed. Experimentalists hold influences of the entropy layer responsible but detailed numerical studies may lead to alternateconclusions.

Laminar turbulent transition is known for a long time as a critical phenomenon influencing the thermal load encountered by hypersonic vehicle during their planetary re-entry trajectory. Despite the efforts made by several research laboratories all over the world, the prediction of transition remains inaccurate, leading to oversized thermal protection system and dramatic limitations of hypersonic vehicles performances. One of the reasons explaining the difficulties encountered in predicting transition is the wide variety of parameters playing a role in the phenomenon. Among these parameters, surface roughness is known to play a major role and has been investigated in the present thesis.

A wide bibliographic review describing the main parameters affecting transition and their coupling is proposed. The most popular roughness-induced transition predictions correlations are presented, insisting on the lack of physics included in these methods and the difficulties encountered in performing ground hypersonic transition experiments representative of real flight characteristics. This bibliographic review shows the importance of a better understanding of the physical phenomenon and of a wider experimental database, including real flight data, for the development of accurate prediction methods.

Based on the above conclusions, a hypersonic experimental test campaign is realized for the characterization of the flow field structure in the vicinity and in the wake of 3D roughness elements. This fundamental flat plate study is associated with numerical simulations for supporting the interpretation of experimental results and thus a better understanding of transition physics. Finally, a model is proposed in agreement with the wind tunnel observations and the bibliographic survey.

The second principal axis of the present study is the development of a hypersonic in-flight roughness-induced transition experiment in the frame of the European EXPERT program. These flight data, together with various wind tunnel measurements are very important for the development of a wide experimental database supporting the elaboration of future transition prediction methods.
Doctorat en Sciences de l'ingénieur
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Transition in high-speed boundary layers is investigated using direct numerical simulation (DNS). A compressible Navier-Stokes code that is specifically tailored towards accurate and efficient simulations of boundary layer stability and boundary layer transition was developed and thoroughly validated. Particular emphasis was put into the adoption of a high-order accurate spatial discretization including a boundary closure with the same stencil width as the interior scheme. Oblique breakdown has been shown, using both temporal and spatial DNS, to be a viable route to transition for the boundary layer of the sharp 7° cone at Mach 3.5 investigated by Corke 2002. A 'wedge-shaped' transitional regime was observed to be characteristic for this type of breakdown on the cone geometry. Furthermore, it was shown that the dominance of the longitudinal mode in the nonlinear transition regime of oblique breakdown is due to a continuously nonlinear forced transient growth. That is the primary pair of oblique waves permanently 'seeds' disturbances into the longitudinal mode, where these disturbances exhibit non-modal unstable behavior. In addition to the simulations of controlled transition via oblique breakdown, six simulations have been conducted and analyzed where transition is initiated by multiple primary waves. Despite the broader spectrum of primary waves, typical features of oblique breakdown are still apparent in these simulations and therefore, it may be conjectured, that oblique breakdown initiated by one primary pair of waves is a good model for the nonlinear processes in natural transition. Furthermore, hypersonic boundary layer stability and transition for a flared and a straight cone at Mach 6 was investigated. In particular, a comparative investigation between both geometries regarding the K-type breakdown was performed in order to give some indications towards the open question how strong the nonlinear transition processis altered by the cone flare.

The hypersonic laminar to turbulent transition problem above Mach 10 is addressed experimentally in the short duration VKI Longshot gun tunnel. Reentry conditions are partially duplicated in terms of Mach and Reynolds numbers. Pure nitrogen is used as a test gas with flow enthalpies sufficiently low to avoid its dissociation, thus approaching a perfect gas behavior. The stabilizing effects of Mach number and nosetip bluntness on the development of natural boundary layer disturbances are evaluated over a 7 degrees half-angle conical geometry without angle of attack.

Emphasis is initially placed on the flow characterization of the Longshot wind tunnel where these experiments are performed. Free-stream static pressure diagnostics are implemented in order to complete existing stagnation point pressure and heat flux measurements on a hemispherical probe. An alternative method used to determine accurate free-stream flow conditions is then derived following a rigorous theoretical approach coupled to the VKI Mutation thermo-chemical library. Resulting sensitivities of free-stream quantities to the experimental inputs are determined and the corresponding uncertainties are quantified and discussed. The benefits of this different approach are underlined, revealing the severe weaknesses of traditional methods based on the measurement of reservoir conditions and the following assumptions of an isentropic and adiabatic flow through the nozzle. The operational map of the Longshot wind tunnel is redefined accordingly. The practical limits associated with the onset of nitrogen flow condensation under non-equilibrium conditions are also accounted for.

Boundary layer transition experiments are then performed in this environment with free-stream Mach numbers ranging between 10-12. Instrumentation along the 800mm long conical model includes flush-mounted thermocouples and fast-response pressure sensors. Transition locations on sharp cones compare favorably with engineering correlations. A strong stabilizing effect of nosetip bluntness is reported and no transition reversal regime is observed for Re_RN<120000. Wavelet analysis of wall pressure traces denote the presence of inviscid instabilities belonging to Mack's second mode. An excellent agreement with Linear Stability Theory results is obtained from which the N-factor of the Longshot wind tunnel in these conditions is inferred. A novel Schlieren technique using a short duration laser light source is developed, allowing for high-quality flow visualization of the boundary layer disturbances. Comparisons of these measurement techniques between each other are finally reported, providing a detailed view of the transition process above Mach 10.
Doctorat en Sciences de l'ingénieur
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Direct Numerical Simulations (DNS) are performed to investigate laminar-turbulent transition in a boundary layer on a sharp cone at Mach 6. The main objective of this dissertation research is to explore which nonlinear breakdown mechanisms may be dominant in a broad--band "natural" disturbance environment and then use this knowledge to perform controlled transition simulations to investigate these mechanisms in great detail. Towards this end, a "natural" transition scenario was modeled and investigated by generating wave packet disturbances. The evolution of a three-dimensional wave packet in a boundary layer has typically been used as an idealized model for "natural" transition to turbulence, since it represents the impulse response of the boundary layer and, thus, includes the interactions between all frequencies and wave numbers. These wave packet simulations provided strong evidence for a possible presence of fundamental and subharmonic resonance mechanisms in the nonlinear transition regime. However, the fundamental resonance was much stronger than the subharmonic. In addition to these two resonance mechanisms, the wave packet simulations also indicated the possible presence of oblique breakdown mechanism. To gain more insight into the nonlinear mechanisms, controlled transition simulations were performed of these mechanisms. Several small and medium scale simulations were performed to scan the parameter space for fundamental and subharmonic resonance. These simulations confirmed the findings of the wave packet simulations, namely that, fundamental resonance is much stronger compared to the subharmonic resonance. Subsequently a set of highly resolved fundamental and oblique breakdown simulations were performed. In these DNS, remarkable streamwise arranged "hot'' streaks were observed for both fundamental and oblique breakdown. The streaks were a consequence of the large amplitude steady longitudinal vortex modes in the nonlinear régime. These simulations demonstrated that both second--mode fundamental breakdown and oblique breakdown may indeed be viable paths to complete breakdown to turbulence in hypersonic boundary layers at Mach 6.

Boundary-layer transition from a laminar to a turbulent regime is a critical driver in the design of high-speed vehicles. The aerothermodynamic loads associated with transitional or fully turbulent hypersonic boundary layers are several times higher than those associated with laminar flow. The presence of isolated roughness elements on the surface of a body can accelerate the growth of incoming disturbances and introduce additional instability mechanisms in the flow field, eventually leading to a premature occurrence of transition. This dissertation studies the instabilities induced by three-dimensional discrete roughness elements located inside a high-speed boundary layer developing on a flat plate. Two-dimensional local linear stability theory (2D-LST) is employed to identify the instabilities evolving in the three-dimensional flow field that characterizes the wake induced by the roughness elements and to investigate their evolution downstream. A formulation of the disturbance energy evolution equation available for base flows depending on a single spatial direction is generalized for the first time to base flows featuring two inhomogeneous directions and perturbations depending on three spatial directions. This generalization allows to obtain a decomposition of the temporal growth rate of 2D-LST instabilities into the different contributions that lead to the production and dissipation of the total disturbance energy. This novel extension of the formulation provides an additional layer of information for understanding the energy exchange mechanisms between a three-dimensional base flow and the perturbations resulting from 2D-LST. Stability computations for a calorically perfect gas illustrate that the wake induced by the roughness elements supports the growth of different sinuous and varicose instabilities which coexist together with the Mack-mode perturbations that evolve in the flat-plate boundary layer, and which become modulated by the roughness-element wake. A single pair of sinuous and varicose disturbances is found to dominate the wake instability in the vicinity of the obstacles. The application of the newly developed decomposition of the temporal growth rate reveals that the roughness-induced wake modes extract most of their potential energy from the transport of entropy fluctuations across the base-flow temperature gradients and most of their kinetic energy from the work of the disturbance Reynolds stresses against the base-flow velocity gradients. Further downstream, the growth rate of the wake instabilities is found to be influenced by the presence of Mack-mode disturbances developing on the flat plate. Strong evidence is observed of a continuous synchronization mechanism between the wake instabilities and the Mack-mode perturbations. This phenomenon leads to an enhancement of the amplification rate of the wake modes far downstream of the roughness element, ultimately increasing the associated integrated amplification factors for some of the investigated conditions. The effects of vibrational molecular excitation and chemical non-equilibrium on the instabilities induced by a roughness element are studied for the case of a high-temperature boundary layer developing on a sharp wedge configuration. For this purpose, a 2D-LST solver for chemical non-equilibrium flows is developed for the first time, featuring a fully consistent implementation of the thermal and transport models employed for the base flow and the perturbation fields. This is achieved thanks to the automatic derivation and implementation tool (ADIT) available within the von Karman Institute extensible stability and transition analysis (VESTA) tool-kit, which enables an automatic derivation and implementation of the 2D-LST governing equations for different thermodynamic flow assumptions and models. The stability computations for this configuration show that sinuous and varicose disturbances also dominate the wake instability in the presence of vibrational molecular energy mode excitation and chemical reactions. The resulting base-flow cooling associated with the modeling of such high-temperature phenomena is found to have opposite stabilizing and destabilizing effects on the streamwise evolution of the sinuous and varicose instabilities. The modeling of vibrational excitation and chemical non-equilibrium acting exclusively on the perturbations is found to have a stabilizing influence in all cases.
Doctorat en Sciences de l'ingénieur et technologie
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Numerical investigations of laminar shock-wave/boundary-layer interactions (SWBLIs) in hypersonic flow have been carried out at M∞ = 6.85 and M∞ ≈ 8, with unit Reynolds numbers ranging from 2.0 x 106 m- l to 7.60 x 106 m- l. This thesis deals with a simplified 2-D geometric configuration to simulate SWBLIs on vehicle surfaces or engine intakes, i.e. the interaction of an oblique shock (produced by a wedge) impinging on an incoming laminar boundary-layer on an isothermal flat plate. The numerical simulations were performed with weak/moderate to strong shock. The results were compared with available theoretical and experimental results. Limited experimental work at M∞ = 6.85 for obtaining qualitative data were performed to provide the location of separation and re-attachment points using surface oil flow. Schlieren photographs were taken to provide the general flow features. A comprehensive analysis was performed on the 2-D numerical results with various Mach numbers, Reynolds numbers and shock strengths, to verify whether numerical solutions were able to confirm the established trends for the laminar free-interaction concept. An analysis was also performed using a well-established power-law relationship of pressure and heat flux in the region of interactions. An unstable first oblique mode disturbance was imposed with the strongest wedge angle, 9°, at M∞ = 6.85 and unit Reynolds number 2.45 x 106 m- l to determine the boundary-layer stability and its propensity to undergo transition in the linear regime. Several unsteady 3-D simulations were performed with varied parameters. Streamwise vortices were generated in all cases especially downstream of maximum separation bubble height. However, as the amplifications of the disturbance were quite small, transition was found to be unlikely at these conditions

Lors d’un vol hypersonique (Mach 6, 20 km d’altitude) la couche limite se développant sur l’avant-corps d’un véhicule hypersonique est laminaire. Cet état cause un désamorçage du moteur (statoréacteur) assurant la propulsion du véhicule. Pour pallier ce problème, il faut forcer la transition de la couche limite á l’aide d’un dispositif de contrôle dont l’effet est permanent (passif) ou modulable (actif) pendant le vol. Dans ce travail, nous analysons l’efficacité d’un dispositif actif d’injection d’air á la paroi pour forcer la transition de la couche limite sur un avant-corps générique. L’interaction jet d’air/couche limite est simulée numériquement avec une approche aux grandes échelles (LES). Une étude paramétrique sur la pression d’injection permet de quantifier l’efficacité du jet á déstabiliser la couche limite. L’influence des conditions de vol (altitude, Mach) sur la transition est également étudiée. Une analyse des résultats de simulation par Décomposition en Modes Dynamiques (DMD) est menée pour comprendre quels sont les modes dynamiques responsables de la transition et les mécanismes sous-jacents. Des essais dans la soufflerie silencieuse de l’université de Purdue (BAM6QT) ont été effectués pour tester expérimentalement l’efficacité des dispositifs passifs (rugosité isolée en forme de losange) et actifs (mono-injection d’air) pour faire transitionner la couche limite. Une peinture thermo-sensible et des capteurs de pression (PCB, Kulite) ont été utilisés pour déterminer la nature de la couche limite. Les résultats de ce travail montrent qu’une injection sonique suffit pour forcer la couche limite. On observe des essais, que pour une même hauteur de pénétration, les rugosités isolées sont moins efficaces que les jets (mono injection) pour déstabiliser la couche limite
During a hypersonic flight (Mach 6, 20 km altitude), the boundary layer developing on the forebody of a vehicle is laminar. This state may destabilize the scramjet engine propelling the vehicle. To overcome this problem during the flight, the boundary layer transition has to be forced using a control device whose effect is fixed (passive) or adjustable (active). In this work, we analyze the efficiency of a jet in crossflow in forcing the boundary layer transition on a generic forebody. The flow is computed with a Large Eddy Simulations (LES) approach. A parametric study of the injection pressure allows the efficiency of the jet in tripping the boundary layer to be quantified. The influence of flight conditions (Mach, altitude) on the transition is also studied. Dynamic Mode Decomposition (DMD) is applied to the simulation results to determine the transition leading to dynamic modes and to understand underlying transition mechanisms. Experiments in the Purdue University quiet wind tunnel (BAM6QT) were performed to quantify the efficiency of a passive transition device (diamond roughnesses) and an active transition device (single air jet) in tripping the boundary layer. A thermo-sensitive paint and pressure transducers (Kulite, PCB) were used to determine the state of the boundary layer on the generic forebody. Experimental and numerical results show a sonic injection is sufficient to induce transition. We observe from the experiments that for the same penetration height, a single roughness is less efficient than a single air jet in destabilizing the boundary layer

This research focuses on measurements of a convective shear-layer instability seen naturally in quiet hypersonic flow. Experiments were carried out in the Boeing/AFOSR Mach 6 Quiet Tunnel (BAM6QT) at Purdue University. The BAM6QT provides low-disturbance hypersonic flow with freestream noise levels similar to what would be experienced by a flight vehicle. To obtain high-speed, off-the-surface measurements of the instability, a modified focused laser differential interferometer (FLDI) was first designed to work with the contoured Plexiglas windows available in the tunnel.

A key remaining challenge in the design of hypersonic vehicles is the incomplete understanding of the process of boundary-layer transition. Turbulent heating rates are substantially higher than those for a laminar boundary layer, and large uncertainties in transition prediction therefore demand conservative, inefficient designs for thermal protection systems. It is only through close collaboration between theory, experiment, and computation that the state of the art can be advanced, but experiments relevant to flight require ground-test facilities with very low disturbance levels. To enable this work, a unique Mach 6 low-disturbance wind tunnel, previously of NASA Langley Research Center, is established within a new pressure-vacuum blow-down infrastructure at Texas A&M. A 40-second run time at constant conditions enables detailed measurements for comparison with computation. The freestream environment is extensively characterized, with a large region of low-disturbance flow found to be reliably present for unit Reynolds numbers Re < 11×10^6 m-1. Experiments are performed on a 5º half-angle flared cone model at Re = 10×10^6 m-1 and zero angle of attack. For the study of the second-mode instability, well-resolved boundary-layer profiles of mean and fluctuating mass flux are acquired at several axial locations using hot-wire probes with a bandwidth of 330 kHz. The second mode instability is observed to undergo significant growth between 250 and 310 kHz. Mode shapes of the disturbance agree well with those predicted from linear parabolized stability equation (LPSE) computations. A 17% (40 kHz) disagreement is observed in the frequency for most-amplified growth between experiment and LPSE. Possible sources of the disagreement are discussed, and the effect of small misalignments of the model is quantified experimentally. A focused schlieren deflectometer with high bandwidth (1 MHz) and high signal-to-noise ratio is employed to complement the hot-wire work. The second-mode fundamental at 250 kHz is observed, as well as additional harmonic content not discernible in the hot-wire measurements at two and three times the fundamental. A bispectral analysis shows that after sufficient amplification of the second mode, several nonlinear mechanisms become significant, including ones involving the third harmonic, which have not hitherto been reported in the literature.