Visualization of Suppressed Shock Wave/Turbulent Boundary Layer Interaction Using Cryogenic Wall Cooling

TL;DR

This study investigates how cryogenic wall cooling with liquid nitrogen affects shock wave/turbulent boundary layer interactions in supersonic flow, showing that cooling suppresses boundary layer separation and alters flow structures.

Contribution

It provides experimental evidence on the effects of cryogenic wall cooling on SWTBLI, demonstrating suppression of separation and consistency with classical interaction theory.

Findings

Cooling reduces interaction length by approximately 40-30%.

Boundary layer separation is suppressed under cryogenic cooling.

Flow structures align with classical Chaman's free interaction theory.

Abstract

To investigate the wall-cooling effects on shock wave turbulent/boundary layer interaction (SWTBLI) with limited experimental data, a supersonic wind tunnel wall was cooled using liquid nitrogen as the cryogenic coolant. Under the condition of the mainstream Mach number, in the range of 2.02-2.04, the wall temperature was cooled to 88-92 K, corresponding to a wall-to-recovery temperature ratio of 0.31-0.33. The flow structures with and without wall cooling were observed using the schlieren method. The reflected shock motion or interaction length in the schlieren image suggested that boundary layer separation was suppressed under the cooling condition in relation to that under the non-cooling condition, and the suppressed ratio of the cooling-to-uncooling interaction length was approximately 0.60-0.72. Additionally, while the mainstream state and wall temperature near the separation were constant, a gradual change in the separated flow field was observed under the wall-cooling condition. This was due to the slow wall temperature increase in the upstream wall of the separation region, where the incoming boundary layer developed. Each flow field of SWTBLI in the present experiment, using liquid nitrogen as the cryogenic coolant, was consistent with the classical Chaman's free interaction theory.