Development and Application of Mach 10 PIV in a Large Scale Wind Tunnel

Abstract

This dissertation presents the development of particle image velocimetry (PIV) for use in a large-scale hypersonic wind tunnel to measure the turbulent boundary layer (TBL) and shock turbulent boundary layer interaction (STBLI) on a large hollow cylinder flare (HCF) test article. The main feature of this application of PIV is the novel local injector which injects seeding particles into the high-speed section of the flow. Development work began sub-scale in a Mach 3 wind tunnel where the seeding particle response was characterized and the local injectors were demonstrated. Once the measurement technique was refined, it was scaled up to hypersonic flow.

The particle response was characterized through PIV measurements of Mach 3 TBLs under low Reynolds number conditions, $ Re_\tau=200{-}1,000 $. Effects of Reynolds number, particle response and boundary layer thickness were evaluated separately from facility specific experimental apparatus or methods. Prior to the current study, no detailed experimental study characterizing the effect of Stokes number on attenuating wall normal fluctuating velocities has been performed. Also, particle lag and spatial resolution are shown to act as low pass filters on the fluctuating velocity power spectral densities which limit the measurable energy content.

High-speed local seeding particle injection has been demonstrated successfully for the first time. Prior to these measurements, PIV applications have employed global seeding or local seeding in the subsonic portion of the nozzle. The high-speed local seeding injectors accelerate the particle aerosol through a converging/diverging supersonic nozzle which exits tangentially to the wall. Two methods are used to measure the particle concentration which shows good agreement to the CFD particle tracking codes used to design the injector nozzle profiles. Based on the particle concentration distribution in the boundary layer a new phenomenon of particle biasing has been identified and characterized.

PIV measurements of a Mach 10 TBL and STBLI have been performed on a large (2.4-m long, 0.23-m dia.) HCF at a freestream unit Reynolds number of 16 million per meter. These are the highest Mach number PIV measurements reported in the literature. Particles are locally injected from the leading edge of the test article and turbulent mixing dispersed the particles for a relatively uniform high concentration of particles at the measurement section 1.83-m downstream of the leading edge. The van Driest transformed mean velocity in the TBL agrees well with incompressible zero pressure gradient log law theory. Morkovin-scaled streamwise velocity fluctuations agree well with the literature for the majority of the boundary layer.