Viscous Drag Measurement And Its Application To Base Drag Reduction

In this study two important topics have been investigated. First, a new automation procedure has been developed to detect fringe patterns in oil- film interferograms. The procedure combines a windowed Fourier transform and a cross correlation technique to determine regions where fringes are likely to reside. The cross correlation of a single cycle cosine function and the original intensity produce a filtered result that isolates the information being sought. The automation procedure is able to capture approximately 75% of the fringes in an image but additional refining of the technique could increase this percentage. Second, the effect of viscous fore-body drag on base drag has been investigated on a 2-D ramp model. Measurements made during the study include oil-film interferometry and hot-wire anemometry for viscous fore-body drag, and pressure measurements on the fore-body and base for fore-body and base drag. The results of this investigation show that an increase in viscous fore-body drag has very little effect on base drag, which contrasts previous studies where increases in viscous fore-body drag tended to decrease base drag. This means that a simple jet pumping mechanism is not the sole effect responsible for base drag reduction in this type of geometry. Hot-wire measurements in the wake of the model show that the flow in the base region is devoid of a dominant shedding frequency. It may be possible that the boundary layer somehow affects the vortex shedding mechanism but further investigations would be necessary to demonstrate that this is true.

Drag reduction tests were conducted on the LASRE/X-33 flight experiment. The LASRE experiment is a flight test of a roughly 20-percent scale model of an X-33 forebody with a single aerospike engine at the rear. The experiment apparatus is mounted on top of an SR-71 aircraft. This paper suggests a method for reducing base drag by adding surface roughness along the forebody. Calculations show a potential for base drag reductions of 8 to 14 percent. Flight results corroborate the base drag reduction, with actual reductions of 15 percent in the high-subsonic flight regime. An unexpected result of this experiment is that drag benefits were shown to persist well into the supersonic flight regime. Flight results show no overall net drag reduction. Applied surface roughness causes forebody pressures to rise and offset base drag reductions. Apparently the grit displaced streamlines outward, causing forebody compression. Results of the LASRE drag experiments are inconclusive and more work is needed. Clearly, however, the forebody grit application works as a viable drag reduction tool.

This paper develops a real-time method based on the law of the wake for estimating forebody skin-friction coefficients. The incompressible law-of-the-wake equations are numerically integrated across the boundary layer depth to develop an engineering model that relates longitudinally averaged skin-friction coefficients to local boundary layer thickness. Solutions applicable to smooth surfaces with pressure gradients and rough surfaces with negligible pressure gradients are presented. Model accuracy is evaluated by comparing model predictions with previously measured flight data. This integral law procedure is beneficial in that skin-friction coefficients can be indirectly evaluated in real-time using a single boundary layer height measurement. In this concept a reference pitot probe is inserted into the flow, well above the anticipated maximum thickness of the local boundary layer. Another probe is servomechanism-driven and floats within the boundary layer. A controller regulates the position of the floating probe. The measured servomechanism of this second probe provides an indirect measurement of both local and longitudinally averaged skin friction. Simulation results showing the performance of the control law for a noisy boundary layer are then presented.

Summary: Tests were conducted to determine the effects of viscosity on the drag and base pressure characteristics of various bodies of revolution at a Mach number of 1.5. The models were tested both with smooth surfaces and with roughness added to evaluate the effects of Reynolds number for both laminar and turbulent boundary layers. The principal geometric variables investigated were after-body shape and length-diameter ratio. For most models, force tests and base pressure measurements were made over a range of Reynolds numbers, based on model length, from 0.6 million to 5.0 millions. Schlieren photographs were used to analyze the effects of viscosity on flow separation and shock-wave configuration near the base and to verify the condition of the boundary layer as deduced from force tests. The results are discussed and compared with theoretical calculations.