Title: Laminar incipient separation in supersonic and hypersonic flows

Authors: T. Neuenhahn; H. Olivier

Addresses: Novel Century, Tower 11, Lane 81 XinGeng Rd., Xuhui District, 200030 Shanghai, China. ' Shock Wave Laboratory, RWTH Aachen University, Templergraben 55, 52062 Aachen, Germany

Abstract: In this article, a correlation for the incipient separation angle is presented being valid for laminar boundary layers in supersonic and hypersonic flows. Such correlation is based on physical reasoning and numerical flow simulations whereby the latter were performed for a Mach number range of 1.5 and 15, unit Reynolds numbers of 10⁶ 1/m to 10⁷ 1/m and wall temperature ratios of 1.35 to 2.7. The derived correlation was verified with additional numerical simulations featuring different Mach number, wall temperature and Reynolds number combinations compared to the combination employed for the derivation of the correlation. The comparison of the newly developed correlation with correlations of Rizetta et al. (1978), Edelmann et al. (2007), Katzer (1989), Greber et al. (1958), Needham and Stollery (1966), and Holden (1971) shows good agreement within the range of free stream conditions, under which the other correlations had been developed with. The new correlation spans a wide range of free stream conditions thus includes all free stream conditions employed by the researchers mentioned above.

Keywords: shock wave-boundary layer interaction; SWBLI; incipient boundary layer separation; supersonic flow; hypersonic flow; laminar flow; elevated wall temperature; shock waves; numerical simulation; flow simulation; vehicle design; supersonic speed; hypersonic speed; aerodynamics; aerodynamic control surfaces.

DOI: 10.1504/IJAD.2012.049138

International Journal of Aerodynamics, 2012 Vol.2 No.2/3/4, pp.114 - 129

Published online: 31 Oct 2014 *

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