GALCIT Colloquium

Shock-wave/boundary-layer interactions (SWBLI) are important to the performance of hypersonic flight vehicles, such as a scramjet's inlet efficiency and unstart behavior, or a maneuvering vehicle's aerodynamic control authority and peak heating loads. However, SWBLI are challenging to predict due to their combination of high spatial gradients and unsteady nature. Viscous effects are unavoidable, and the flows are highly sensitive to flow conditions and flight attitude. Current research at the University of Notre Dame seeks to make improved experimental measurements of the phenomena. Development of high-resolution instrumentation --- temperature-sensitive paint, pressure-sensitive paint, infrared thermography, and background-oriented schlieren --- enable measurement of internal and external SWBLI-dominated flows with the sensitivity and spatial resolution needed to characterize these flows, with an eye toward flow-control techniques and validation of computational tools.