The effects of nose bluntness on broadband disturbance receptivity in hypersonic flow

While nose bluntness is known to have a large impact on the stability of hypersonic vehicles, its influence on the freestream receptivity process has not been fully characterized for a wide range of conditions. This paper investigates the effects of nose bluntness on the second mode receptivity coefficients and the development of boundary layer disturbances over two 7° half-angle circular blunt cones at Mach 10 after perturbation with broadband freestream pulses of different types. The cones have nose radii of 9.525 mm (case B) and 5.08 mm (case I). Unsteady direct numerical simulation (DNS) and linear stability theory (LST) results compare well and predict stronger second mode growth for case I in all pulse cases. Unsteady DNS also shows variations in extramodal excitation between the cones depending on freestream disturbance type. Spectral receptivity coefficients are generated by decomposing the unsteady DNS data into discrete frequency Fourier modes, which are then corrected with LST N-factors. Fast acoustic disturbances demonstrate minimal variation in receptivity coefficients, while temperature and vorticity disturbances have much higher coefficients in case I. Planar slow acoustic pulses induce stronger disturbances outside of the second mode in case I, resulting in higher peak receptivity coefficients. Results show significant variation in receptivity response based on nose bluntness, pulse geometry, and the type of incident perturbation.