Experimental study of wall boundary layer growth in the 10 deg half angle conical nozzle of a reflected shock tunnel

Calibration studies of shock-tunnel nozzle flow were made in both N2 and Ar for a reservoir temperature of 2000 deg K and reservoir pressures of 15, 85, and 130 atm. The results for both test gases showed that the boundary layer was turbulent and the growth nonlinear, with the thickness being greater in Ar than N2 at comparable reservoir conditions. The boundary-layer thickness decreased with increasing reservoir pressure, but only small differences occurred between the two largest reservoir pressures. Good correlations of the boundary layer and displacement thickness were obtained for both N2 and Ar in terms of Reynolds number based on a reference temperature.