A high-speed schlieren system was developed for the Sandia Hypersonic Wind Tunnel. Schlieren images were captured at 290 kHz and used to study the growth and breakdown of second-mode instabilities into turbulent spots on a 7 • cone. At Mach 5, wave packets would intermittently occur and break down into isolated turbulent spots surrounded by an otherwise smooth, laminar boundary layer. At Mach 8, the boundary layer was dominated by second-mode instabilities which would break down into larger regions of turbulence. Second-mode waves surrounded these turbulent patches as opposed to the smooth laminar flow seen at Mach 5.Detailed pressure and thermocouple measurements were also made along the cone at Mach 5, 8 and 14, in a separate tunnel entry. These measurements give an average picture of the transition behavior that complements the intermittent behavior captured by the schlieren system. At Mach 14, the boundary-layer remained laminar so the transition process could not be studied. However, the first measurements of second-mode waves were made in HWT-14.
Nomenclatureδ boundary-layer thickness (mm) φ cone azimuthal angle ( • ) τ w nozzle wall shear stress (Pa) D model base diameter (m) M freestream Mach number M e Mach number at boundary-layer edge P 0 tunnel stagnation pressure (kPa) p root-mean-square pressure fluctuation (Pa) p pressure fluctuation, p − p e (Pa) p e boundary-layer edge pressure (Pa) q e dynamic pressure at boundary-layer edge (Pa) R cone radius (mm) Re freestream unit Reynolds number (1/m) Re D freestream Reynolds number based on model base diameter St Stanton number T 0 tunnel stagnation temperature (K) U c average convection velocity (m/s) U e boundary-layer edge velocity (m/s) x axial model coordinate measured from nose (m)