| The interaction of a shock wave with a boundary layer generally causes the performance of an aerodynamic surface to deteriorate, especially if the adverse pressure gradient of the interaction is sufficient to cause the boundary layer to separate. The interaction results in poor pressure recovery, intense heating and unsteadiness. A practical example would be in supersonic inlets where SBLIs can reduce the inlet's effective area and can even cause engine unstart.;A passive method that has been proposed recently is to use a sub-boundary layer device called micro vortex generator (MVG). Compared to other flow control methods, such as boundary layer bleed, conventional VGs, some researchers found that micro VGs have a lower drag penalty and is effective in separation flow control. Some experiments also showed that MVGs can reduce the shock strength on transonic airfoils in some cases. Other than being found in research laboratories MVGs have been found in many practical applications.;In this study, mean pressure measurements were used to observe how MVGs affect SBLIs by manipulating the upstream flow. Mean pressure measurements in the present research were obtained at Mach 2.5. Either an array of MVG70 or MVG45 was mounted ahead of a 5° ramp which produced a weak, unseparated SBLI at Mach 2.5. |
