Stability of the laminar boundary layer on the surface of the Mach-6 contoured nozzle

Abstract

Abstract The stability of the laminar boundary layer on the surface of the Mach 6 contoured nozzle designed for short-duration wind tunnel Transit-M is investigated. The numerical simulation of the laminar flow inside the nozzle is performed using Ansys Fluent software. The obtained boundary layers profiles on the nozzle surface are used to calculate the growth rate of the first and second Mack mode and Görtler vortices in the framework of the linear stability theory. It has been shown that, for the Mach 6 nozzle, the Görtler vortices grow most rapidly, the first Mack mode grows slower, and the second mode is insignificant.