Effects of Shock-Tube Cleanliness on Slender-Body Hypersonic Instability and Transition Studies at High-Enthalpy

Abstract

A series of slender-body hypervelocity boundary-layer instability and transition experiments were performed in the Caltech T5 Reflected-Shock Tunnel. During this campaign, it became clear that the condition of the T5 shock tube would significantly affect the consistency of the instability and transition measurements; a regimen of cleaning was iterated on until satisfactory repeatability was achieved. In this work, a description of the cleaning regimen is given. Additionally, boundary-layer instability measurements and a statistical analysis of the boundary-layer transition scatter are presented for experiments before and after cleaning regimen implementation.

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