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Mack-mode instabilities on a cooled flared cone with discrete roughness elements at Mach 6

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Abstract

Boundary-layer transition, and the increased heating that accompanies it, has a great effect on how hypersonic vehicles and projectiles are designed. The Mack-mode instability is the most dominant cause of boundary-layer transition at Mach numbers greater than 4 and is being studied here. Boundary-layer transition was tracked using several diagnostics. Thermocouples embedded in the model were used to track elevated heating levels from boundary-layer transition. Visualization of the Mack-mode disturbances was achieved and spectral data acquired using a focusing schlieren system, Mack-mode frequencies ranging from 281 to 315 kHz were recorded. 2-D mass-flux maps of the boundary layer were created using hot-film probes, azimuthal sweeps showed periodic mass-flux variations with a wavenumber of 90, which were attributed to Görtler vortices. Distributed roughness elements were placed at the neutral point with the same wavenumber seen from the hot-film data to force a 3-D breakdown, and experiments repeated. Linear array-focused laser differential interferometry was used to acquire simultaneous measurements at six streamwise points in the boundary layer and observe boundary-layer transition, while varying wall temperature and Reynolds number, wall normal measurements were also made. Computations were done to support the experimental data and agreed favorably. This work furthers the understanding of boundary-layer transition at hypersonic speeds and demonstrates the effectiveness of several diagnostic systems.

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Acknowledgements

This work has been supported by the George Eppright endowed chair and the Texas A&M Aerospace Engineering Department. The authors gratefully acknowledge support for this work in part from a grant from the Department of Defense Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship Grant # N00014-18-1-3020). Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Department of Defense Office of the Under Secretary of Defense. The computational work was done by Daniel Mullen and Helen Reed at Texas A&M University. The authors would like to thank the other graduate students at the National Aerothermochemistry Laboratory for their continued help and support in carrying out experiments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 77843, USA

    Farhan Siddiqui, William S. Saric & Rodney D. W. Bowersox

  2. University of Tennessee Space Institute, Tullahoma, TN, 37388, USA

    Mark Gragston

  3. University of Tennessee-Knoxville, Knoxville, TN, 37996, USA

    Mark Gragston

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  1. Farhan Siddiqui
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  2. Mark Gragston
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  3. William S. Saric
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  4. Rodney D. W. Bowersox
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Correspondence to Farhan Siddiqui.

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Siddiqui, F., Gragston, M., Saric, W.S. et al. Mack-mode instabilities on a cooled flared cone with discrete roughness elements at Mach 6. Exp Fluids 62, 213 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00348-021-03304-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00348-021-03304-6

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