Three-dimensional boundary-layer transition on a swept wing at Mach 3.5

Transition on a swept-wing leading-edge model at Mach 3.5 is investigated. Surface pressure and temperature measurements are obtained in the NASA Langley Research Center Supersonic Low-Disturbance Tunnel. For one case, temperature-sensitive paint and a sublimating chemical are used to visualize surface flow features such as transition location. The experimental data are compared with 1) mean-flow results computed as solutions to the thin-layer Navier-Stokes equations and 2) N-factors obtained using the envelope e N method. The experimental and computational results compare favorably in most cases. In particular, N ≃ 13 correlates best with the observed transition location over a range of freestream unit Reynolds numbers and angles of attack. Computed traveling crossflow disturbances with frequencies of 40-60 kHz have the largest N factors, and the surface flow visualizations reveal smooth transition fronts with only faint evidence of stationary crossflow vortices. These results suggest that transition is probably dominated by traveling, rather than stationary, crossflow disturbances for the present model.