Off- and on-surface studies on flow development from various vortex generators configurations at Mach 2.0

An experimental investigation was conducted to study off- and on-surface flow developments behind various mechanical vortex generators configurations at Mach 2.0. The control configurations used in this study include rectangular vane, ramp vane, delta-ramp, and split delta-ramp. The primary objective of this study was to understand the effectiveness of control in terms of adding fullness to the boundary layer, wake liftoff, and spanwise uniformity when placed in an array. Pitot rake surveys were carried out both in spanwise and three streamwise locations, namely, x/delta = 5, 10, and 15. The velocity profile is found to be much fuller for rectangular vane relative to other control configurations. The iso-velocity contours captured the wake growth and vortex liftoff features for all the control configurations. The surface oil visualization shows the vortex trail for the rectangular vane to be the widest and for delta-ramp to be the least. The Pressure Sensitive Paint tests show surface flow features similar to that from oil flow visualization results for all control configurations. The quantitative data from these tests further helped to understand the flow development features in detail.

Automated summary

An experimental investigation was conducted to study off- and on-surface flow developments behind various mechanical vortex generator configurations at Mach 2.0. The study found that the velocity profile is much fuller for rectangular vane relative to other control configurations, and the iso-velocity contours captured the wake growth and vortex liftoff features for all the control configurations. The quantitative data from these tests further helped to understand the flow development features in detail.