Experimental, Analytical, and Computational Methods Applied To Hypersonic Compression Ramp Flows

Experimental data on fully laminar and transitional shock-wave/boundary-layer interactions in two-dimensional compression corners are provided and used for the validation of two full Navier-Stokes solvers, as well as for checking the capabilities and limitations of simple analytical prediction methods. Viscous pressure interaction, free interaction, and inviscid oblique shock theory are found to predict well the pressure levels on the flat plate upstream of the interaction, within the separated region, and downstream of the interaction, respectively. The reference temperature theory is found to perform well in attached flow regimes both upstream and downstream of the interaction region and to provide the basis for a universal peak heating correlation law. Full Navier-Stokes computations are necessary, however, to predict the extent of the interaction region and the associated influence on the pressure distribution (control effectiveness) as web as the detailed heat transfer distribution. To achieve this, very fine gridding coupled with the use of strict convergence criteria (based on the evolution of the location of the separation point rather than on standard density residuals) is shown to be necessary. It is finally shown that, although sophisticated turbulence models need to be further developed before the detailed characteristics of fully turbulent shock-wave/boundary-layer interactions may be predicted, transitional interactions (where transition typically occurs in the neighborhood of reattachment) may be adequately handled by algebraic turbulence models ''switched on'' just downstream of reattachment.