Strong interactions of shock waves with boundary layers lead to flow separations and enhanced heat transfer rates. When the approaching boundary layer is hypersonic and transitional the problem is particularly challenging and more reliable data is required in order to assess changes in the flow and the surface heat transfer, and to develop simplified models. The present contribution compares results for transitional interactions on a flat plate at Mach 6 from three different experimental facilities using the same instrumented plate insert. The facilities consist of a Ludwieg tube (RWG), an open-jet wind tunnel (H2K) and a high-enthalpy free-piston-driven reflected shock tunnel (HEG). The experimental measurements include shadowgraph and infrared thermography as well as heat transfer and pressure sensors. Direct numerical simulations (DNS) are carried out to compare with selected experimental flow conditions. The combined approach allows an assessment of the effects of unit Reynolds number, disturbance amplitude, shock impingement location and wall cooling. Measures of intermittency are proposed based on wall heat flux, allowing the peak Stanton number in the reattachment regime to be mapped over a range of intermittency states of the approaching boundary layer, with higher overshoots found for transitional interactions compared with fully turbulent interactions. The transition process is found to develop from second (Mack) mode instabilities superimposed on streamwise streaks.

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During the descent phase of the transition flight experiment HIFiRE-1 the angle of attack was higher than expected, since an anomaly occurred in the exoatmospheric pointing maneuver. All pre-flight ground tests were carried out at angles of attack below 6 • . Therefore several post-flight experiments at high angles of attack were performed in the hypersonic wind tunnel (H2K) of the German Aerospace Center in Cologne. The selected Mach number of 7 and the Reynolds number range cover the flow conditions of the flight phase which are relevant for the transition experiment. The test campaign included highfrequency surface pressure measurements with PCB R sensors and heat flux measurements by means of quantitative infrared thermography. The results show significant effects of the emerging crossflow vortices on the transition location and the pressure fluctuations in the boundary layer.

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than two and an increase in the heat flux by a factor of more than four. Therefore, big areas of laminar flow are desirable to increase the performance of a propelled vehicle and to reduce the weight of the necessary thermal protection systems of a propelled or re-entry vehicle. On the other hand, turbulent boundary layers have a lower tendency to separate and are preferred in regions of large pressure gradients. Hence, the correct prediction of the transition is essential for the design of future hypersonic vehicles and their thermal protection systems.Shock wave-boundary layer interactions (SWBLI) are inevitable for most of the practical applications. They can cause locally increased pressure and thermal loads, cause separations and have a great influence onto the transition process. Most of the existing publications in this field deal with interactions of shock waves with turbulent boundary layers (Dupont et al. 2006; Schülein 2006;Humble et al. 2009; Helmer 2011;Grilli et al. 2012), some handle the case of interactions of shock waves with laminar boundary layers (Boin et al. 2006;Lüdeke and Sandham 2009;Brown and Boyce 2009) but investigations of the interaction between shock waves and transitional boundary layers are rare (Dolling 2001;Arnal and Delery 2004;Benay et al. 2006;Vanstone et al. 2013). In order to study these phenomena in detail within the framework of the ESA-TRP "laminar to turbulent transition in hypersonic flows," experiments in three different facilities using several measuring techniques have been carried out (Sandham et al. 2014). This paper describes the results of the experiments performed in the hypersonic wind tunnel H2K at DLR in Cologne.The transition process of undisturbed hypersonic boundary layers is most likely driven by instabilities called second (Mack) modes (Mack 1975). These are acoustic waves trapped between the wall and the sonic line. Therefore, Abstract This paper presents the results of the experiments performed in the hypersonic wind tunnel H2K in the framework of the ESA technology research project "laminar to turbulent transition in hypersonic flows". The investigations include the free boundary-layer transition on a flat plate as well as the influence of a shock wave-boundary layer interaction on the transition. The shock is created by a wedge with a small angle of attack resulting in a moderate shock intensity. The experiments were performed at Mach 6.0, at three different unit Reynolds numbers and with a translational displacement of the shock generator. Besides the optical methods-Schlieren photography and infrared thermography-several intrusive sensors were used. High-speed measurements were carried out using PCB and atomic layer thermo pile sensors. Kulite sensors were used for low-and mid-speed pressure measurements. The data analysis includes the comparison of the absolute values, the frequency spectra and wavelets and their distributions in time and space.