Laminar Near Wake of a Circular Cylinder at Hypersonic Speeds

Abstract

The laminar near-wake flow behind a circular cylinder at hypersonic speeds has been examined experimentally and analytically. Surface pressure and heat flux measurements were obtained in a free-piston shock tunnel at a nominal Mach number of 10. The freestream unit Reynolds numbers were 3.02 x 10 5 /m and 11.7 x 10 5 /m at total specific enthalpies of 13.35 and 3.94 MJ/kg, respectively. The experimental data of surface pressure and heat flux showed good agreement with theory based on perfect gas. Unlike surface pressure, the surface heat flux depended strongly on the wall-to-total-temperature ratio, and it increased with increase in the ratio. The surface pressure, however, depended on the Reynolds number, although this dependency was found to be weak. The flow separation angles behind the cylinder showed an inverse of the square root of Reynolds number dependence similar to the low-speed laminar flow separation behind a circular cylinder.