Structural responses of the supersonic turbulent boundary layer to expansions

Structural responses of the supersonic turbulent boundary layer to the expansions induced by a convex wall and a ramp are experimentally investigated. Relaminarization of part of the turbulent boundary layer in the near wall region is clearly visualized, which has been seldom presented before. The relaminarized layers formed over two test models are different. While a thicker relaminarized layer is observed for the ramp, a longer lasting layer is noticed for the convex wall. The structure angle is found to be increased by the expansions. Increases of turbulence scale and boundary layer thickness are observed. The contribution of the bulk dilatation to the boundary layer growth is stronger than that of the centrifugal force.