Experimental Investigation on the Effects of Reynolds Number on Blunt-Fin-Induced Shock-Wave/Laminar Boundary-Layer Interaction

Abstract

An experimental investigation of blunt-fin-induced shock-wave/laminar boundary-layer interactions with multiple Reynolds numbers has been conducted on two blunt fins of thickness 9.53 mm (3/8 in) and 0 and 45 degrees sweep. The Reynoldsnumber (based on distance of the fin root downstream of the plate leading edge) spanned from 2.0 × 10^5 to 9.7 × 10^5. Increasing Reynolds number was found to increase the Stanton number of the interaction and change the location of these high heat transfer regions around the swept fin, whereas only the Stanton number of the interaction changed around the unswept fin. Infrared (IR) thermography was used to capture temperature fields used to estimate heat transfer and Stanton number. Stanton numbers ranged from 0.005 to 0.015 for the unswept fin and 0.006 to 0.011 for the swept fin, varying with Reynolds number.