MEASUREMENTS OF SUPERSONIC WING TIP VORTICES

An experimental study of supersonic wing tip vortices has been conduct ed at Mach 2.49 using small-scale four-hole and five-hole conical prob es, The study was performed 2.25 chords downstream of a semispan recta ngular wing at angles of attack of 5.7 and 10.4 deg. The main objectiv e of the experiments was to determine the Mach number, flow angularity and total pressure distribution in the core region of supersonic wing tip vortices. A secondary aim was to demonstrate the feasibility of c alibrating a conical probe using a computational solution to predict t he flow characteristics. Results of the present investigation showed t hat the numerically generated calibration data can be used for pointed nose four-hole conical probes but were not sufficiently accurate for conventional five-hole probes due to nose bluntness effects. A combina tion of four-hole conical probe measurements with independent pitot pr essure measurements indicated a significant Mach number and total pres sure deficit in the core regions of supersonic wing tip vortices, comb ined with an asymmetric ''Burger-like'' swirl distribution.