Publications

Aero-optical distortions of turbulent boundary layers: Hypersonic dns

Miller, Nathan M.; Lynch, Kyle P.; Gordeyev, Stanislov; Guildenbecher, Daniel R.; Duan, Lian; Wagnild, Ross M.

Four Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) datasets covering effective freestream Mach numbers of 8 through 14 are used to investigate the behavior of turbulence-induced aero-optical distortions in hypersonic boundary layers. The datasets include two from simulations of flat plate boundary layers (Mach 8 and 14) and two from simulations of flow over a sharp cone (Mach 8 and 14). Instantaneous three-dimensional fields of density from each DNS are converted to refraction index and integrated to produce distributions of the Optical Path Differences (OPD) caused by turbulence. These values are then compared to experimental data from the literature and to an existing model for the root-mean-square of the OPD. Although the model was originally developed for flows with Mach ≤ 5, it provides a basis to which we compare the hypersonic data.