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Particle image velocimetry, PCB pressure sensors, and planar Rayleigh scattering are combined to study the development of second-mode instability in a Mach 6 flow over a flat plate with two-dimensional roughness. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first time that the instantaneous velocity fields and flow structures of the second-mode instability waves passing through the roughness are shown experimentally. A two-dimensional transverse wall blowing is used to generate second-mode instability in the boundary layer and seeding tracer particles. The two-dimensional roughness is located upstream of the synchronization point between mode S and mode F. The experimental results showed that the amplitude of the second-mode instability will be greatly increased upstream of the roughness. Then it damps and recovers quickly in the vicinity downstream of the roughness. Further downstream, it acts as no-roughness case, which confirms Fong’s numerical results K. D. Fong, X. W. Wang, and X. L. Zhong, “Numerical simulation of roughness effect on the stability of a hypersonic boundary layer,” Comput. Fluids 96, 350 (2014). It also has been observed that the strength of the amplification and damping effect depends on the height of the roughness.
Tang et al. (Mon,) studied this question.