Three-Dimensional Shockwave/Boundary-Layer Interactions on Swept Compression Ramps at Mach 4

Two-dimensional and three-dimensional shock-wave/boundary-layer interaction (SBLI) dynamics are investigated using compression ramps in the University of Tennessee Space Institute’s Mach 4 Ludwieg Tube. The experiments in the present work are building upon prior experiments conducted in a smaller facility at Mach 2 conditions. The goal of the current experiment was to conduct a "scale-up" exercise to investigate the effects of Mach number, Reynolds number, and other pertinent flow conditions on the dynamics of 2D and 3D SBLIs. The three model configurations consisted of a high sweep ramp (λ = 27.5 ◦ ), a low sweep ramp (λ =10 ◦ ), and an unswept ramp (λ = 0 ◦ ). All three ramps had a compression angle of 30 ◦ . Oil flow visualization, pressure sensitive paint, and pressure transducers were used to gather information on the separation shock location, separation region shape, and unsteadiness within the separation region.

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