SURFACE REFLECTIVE VISUALIZATION SYSTEM STUDY TO VORTICAL FLOW OVER DELTA-WINGS

Evaluation of the surface reflective visualization (SRV) system is con ducted using both experimental and numerical simulation techniques. Ex perimental measurements are made with a spherical five-hole probe util izing a local look-up calibration algorithm. These data are used to de termine the location of the primary vortex core as well as the spanwis e integrated density gradient. The numerical simulation technique empl oys a fast ray tracing algorithm and schlieren system simulation to de termine the integrated density gradient distribution over the surface of the wing. The initial numerical flow solution used in the simulatio n is generated via a computational code based on a finite volume discr etization of the three-dimensional conservation law form of the Euler equations. Both the experimental and numerical validation procedures s upport initial interpretations of SRV images of the compressible vorti cal flowfield above the lee side of the delta wing. The experimental r esults of the probe explorations supported the geometric interpretatio n of the images. The numerical simulation demonstrated that the SRV te chnique can, indeed, be expected to visualize the embedded crossflow s hock existing at transonic flow conditions.