Experimental Investigation of Roughness Effects on Transition Onset and Turbulent Heating Augmentation on a Hemisphere at Mach 6 and Mach 10

An experimental investigation of the effects of distributed surface roughness on boundary-layer transition and turbulent heating has been conducted. Hypersonic wind tunnel testing was performed using hemispherical models with surface roughness patterns simulating those produced by heat shield ablation. Global aeroheating and transition onset data were obtained using phosphor thermography at Mach 6 and Mach 10 over a range of roughness heights and free stream Reynolds numbers sufficient to produce laminar, transitional and turbulent flow. Upstream movement of the transition onset location and increasing heating augmentation over predicted smooth-wall levels were observed with both increasing roughness heights and increasing free stream Reynolds numbers. The experimental heating data are presented herein, as are comparisons to smooth-wall heat transfer distributions from computational flow-field simulations. The transition onset data are also tabulated, and correlations of these data are presented.