Effect of ‘Ramped Vane’ Vortex Generators on a Flare-Induced Shock—Boundary Layer Interaction

This paper describes the modifications induced by Ramped Vanes (RVs) on an axisymmetric compression corner-induced shock—boundary layer interaction flowfield. Experimental and numerical investigations were performed at Mach 2 over a cone-cylinder-flare model, which had flow turning angle of 24° at the cylinder-flare juncture. The RVs were located 50 mm upstream of the corner and had a height (h) equivalent to 50% of the local boundary layer thickness (h = 0.5δRV = 2.1 mm). The counter-rotating vortices emanating from these RVs formed alternate upwash and downwash bands in the upstream boundary layer, which led to premature and delayed onset of flow separation respectively. Additionally, interaction of these vortices with the recirculation region, caused formed tornado-like vortices and brought the reattachment line very close to the compression corner. Along the downwash region, the separation shock was also considerably pushed downstream, which increased its oscillating frequency range, while roughly maintaining the same Strouhal number range.