Large-scale motions in a supersonic turbulent boundary layer on a curved surface

This paper presents measurements in a Mach 3 turbulent boundary layer which was subjected to a short region of concave surface curvature. Mean velocity and time-averaged turbulence measurements are presented to indicate the severity of the distortion, although the focus of this study is on how the large-scale organized motions are affected by the distortion. A 12 deg increase in the inclination angle of organized motions is observed, and correlation measurements indicate an increase in the streamwise length scale. VITA conditional sampling is used to identify strong positive streamwise mass-flux gradients as the large-scale structure responsible for the measured structure angle and to determine the ensemble-averaged flowfield associated with the mass-flux gradient structures.