Investigation of Three-Dimensional Shock/Boundary-Layer Interactions at Swept Compression Corners

Abstract

This paper presents the first phase of an experimental study of a three-dimensional shock wave/turbulent boundary-layer interaction at a swept compression corner. Compression corners of 16 and 24 deg angles, whkh cause near-incipient and well-separated two-dimensional flows at Much 3, are systematically swept through angles up to 50 deg while maintaining a constant streamwise corner angle. The resulting three-dimensional flows are studied by way of detailed surface measurements and a few exploratory flowfield surveys. Tests of four Reynolds numbers reveal that a Reynolds number influence on the interaction length remains in effect across the available range of sweep. Cylindrical symmetry is obtained along the compression corner at many of the conditions tested. The corner flow differs little from the two-dimensional case for sweep angles less than about 10 deg, above which the interaction length begins to increase dramatically. This increase agrees qualitatively with the assumption of two-dimension al flow normal to the swept corner. Flowfield surveys show that the boundary layer breaks away from the surface to form a free layer at sweep angles up to at least 40 deg. Further, measured yaw angles within the swept interaction deviate only a few degrees from the streamwise direction except near the model surface.