Transition in a fully developed circular pipe flow was investigated experimentally by introducing periodic perturbations. The simultaneous excitation of helical modes having indices m = ±1, ±2 and ±3 was chosen. The experiments revealed that the late stage of transition is accompanied by the formation of streaky structures that are associated with peaks and valleys in the azimuthal distribution of the streamwise velocity disturbance. The breakdown to turbulence starts with the appearance of spikes in the temporal traces of the velocity. Spectral characteristics of these spikes and the direction of their propagation relative to the wall are similar to those in boundary layers. Analysis of the data suggests the existence of a high-shear layer in the instantaneous velocity profile.Additional experiments in which a very weak, steady flow was added locally to the periodic axisymmetric perturbation were also carried out. These experiments resulted in the generation of a single peak in the azimuthal distribution of the disturbance amplitude. The characteristics of the transition process (spikes, vortical patterns etc.) within this peak were similar to ones observed in the helical excitation experiments. Based on these results one may conclude that late stages of transition in a pipe flow and in a boundary layer are similar. The present report is part of an ongoing investigation that was initiated by Eliahou, Tumin & Wygnanski (1998a).

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A new idea of drag reduction and thermal protection for hypersonic vehicles is proposed based on the combination of a physical spike and lateral jets for shockreconstruction. The spike recasts the bow shock in front of a blunt body into a conical shock, and the lateral jets work to protect the spike tip from overheating and to push the conical shock away from the blunt body when a pitching angle exists during flight. Experiments are conducted in a hypersonic wind tunnel at a nominal Mach number of 6. It is demonstrated that the shock/shock interaction on the blunt body is avoided due to injection and the peak pressure at the reattachment point is reduced by 70% under a 4 • attack angle.

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a b s t r a c t Self-organized generation of transverse waves associated with the transverse wave instabilities at a diverging cylindrical detonation front was numerically studied by solving two-dimensional Euler equations implemented with an improved two-step chemical kinetic model. After solution validation, four mechanisms of the transverse wave generation were identified from numerical simulations, and referred to as the concave front focusing, the kinked front evolution, the wrinkled front evolution and the transverse wave merging, respectively. The propagation of the cylindrical detonation is maintained by the growth of the transverse waves that match the rate of increase in surface area of the detonation front to asymptotically approach a constant average number of transverse waves per unit length along the circumference of the detonation front. This cell bifurcation phenomenon of cellular detonations is discussed in detail to gain better understanding on detonation physics.

In order to achieve efficient wave drag reduction under non-zero attack angles and avoid the severe aerodynamic heating, a new concept of the Non-ablative Thermal Protection System (NaTPS) for hypersonic vehicles was proposed based on the idea that the conical shock wave angle can be enlarged by lateral jets to push the conical shock away from the blunt body surface. In the NaTPS, a spike-blunt body structure and lateral jets are combined together to develop a new shock-reconstructing system in front of hypersonic vehicles. When the spike acts to recast the bow shock in front of a blunt body into a conical shock, the lateral jet works to protect the spike tip from overheating and push the conical shock away from the blunt body when a pitching angle exists during flight. The experimental flow visualization and the pressure measurements were conducted in a hypersonic wind tunnel for both the conceptual demonstration and CFD validation. Numerical simulations were also carried out to examine the complex flow around the NaTPS. Both experimental and numerical results show that the NaTPS works well for shock drag reduction and thermal protection. The shock/shock interaction on shoulders of the blunt body is avoided due to lateral jet injection and the peak pressure at the reattachment region is reduced by 65% under a 4• attack angle. The lateral jet could be powered either by high pressure gas stored in the tank or by the water evaporation process in which water absorbs the heat from the hot walls of the blunt noses. The jet pressure needed for producing lateral jet is much smaller than for the forward-facing jet from the stagnation point. The advantages of this concept are well demonstrated and its practical application appears promising. Nomenclature

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