Masters Theses

Date of Award

5-1992

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Major

Aerospace Engineering

Major Professor

Roger A. Crawford

Abstract

To provide insight into the effects of nosetip bluntness on the stability characteristics of hypersonic flow over slender cones, the author analyzed the data from Stetson, Thompson, Donaldson and Siler's 1986 stability investigation. This was Stetson, et al.'s second investigation of a 0.70-inch nosetip radius sphere-cone. Stability data, collected in the entropy layer by Stetson, et al. using hot-wire anemometers, were reduced into mass-flux and total temperature components using modal analysis and fluctuation-diagram techniques. Amplitude and amplification rates were calculated for each component, and the entropy layer is examined for instabilities. The stability characteristics of the entropy layer are summarized in an entropy layer stability diagram. Disturbances are observed in the entropy layer along the cone frustrum which grow in amplitude as they progress down the model. This growth is likely the result of instabilities seen in the entropy layer. Previous data indicate the entropy layer disturbances enter the boundary layer and grow rapidly. For large-bluntness sphere-cones the flow undergoes transition shortly after these large-amplitude disturbances enter the boundary layer. However, the boundary layer remains stable on small-bluntness sphere-cones after swallowing the entropy layer.

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