Boundary Layer Transition Correlation On A Slender Cone In Wind Tunnels And Flight For Indications Of Flow Quality

Boundary-layer Transition Correlation on a Slender Cone in Wind Tunnels and Flight for Indications of Flow Quality

Boundary-layer transition location measurements were made on a 10-deg sharp cone in 23 wind tunnels in the United States and Europe and in flight. The data were acquired at subsonic, transonic, and supersonic Mach numbers over a range of unit Reynolds numbers in an effort to obtain an improved understanding of the effect of wind tunnel flow quality on transition location. The data indicate that the transition mechanism in both wind tunnels and flight is associated with the formation of Tollmien-Schlichting waves in the laminar boundary layer. However, the location of the end of transition was found to be primarily a function of the noise under the laminar boundary of the cone surface and, within + or - 20 percent, independent of Mach number and unit Reynolds number. (Author).

NASA Technical Paper

Correlations of Supersonic Boundary-layer Transition on Cones Including Effects of Large Axial Variations in Wind-tunnel Noise