Experimental study on boundary layer of internal flow visible supersonic nozzle

Abstract

The high-frequency pulsation noise generated by the turbulent boundary layer on the wall of a Laval nozzle can significantly affect the quality of the flow field at the nozzle outlet. In this study, a supersonic wind tunnel with visible internal flow is designed and fabricated to observe the development and evolution of the boundary layer on the contraction and expansion surfaces of a Laval nozzle, as well as to study the flow field inside the supersonic nozzle. The subsonic, transonic and supersonic profiles of the nozzle are designed by bicubic curve, Hall method and classical characteristic line method respectively. The results of numerical calculation and total pressure measurement show that the flow field at the nozzle outlet of the wind tunnel is uniform and stable, and the deviation of Mach-number-root mean square is better than the qualified level of China’s national military standard. Nanoparticle-tracer based planar laser scattering (NPLS) technology is used to carry out the flow display test of the internal flow visual supersonic nozzle, and the fine structure image of the whole flow field in the nozzle is obtained. The image clearly shows the development and evolution of the boundary layer in the nozzle. The interface between boundary layer and main stream and the wall curve of nozzle transition region are extracted by image processing technology. The fractal dimension of the extracted boundary layer contour is calculated, thereby establishing the corresponding relationship between the fractal dimension and the boundary layer state, and determining the transition position of the boundary layer. The results show that the transition position of the nozzle profile is closer to downstream than that of the nozzle straight wall. The fractal dimension can qualitatively judge the flow state of the boundary layer; however, it is necessary to distinguish between laminar boundary layers and hairpin vortices in the initial transition stage by considering the thickness of boundary layer.