Experimental generation of non-uniform surface temperature distributions in high-speed flow
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Ozawa, Kazuki
Bruce, Paul
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
This study presents prediction and experimental measurement of non-uniform surface temperature distributions on a flat plate test article for a flow control method. The test article features strips of materials (copper and MACOR) with dissimilar thermal properties interacting with a developing boundary layer to establish a passively controlled, non-uniform temperature profile. Experiments with a pre-heated model are conducted within the Imperial College supersonic wind tunnel at Mach 2.75. Infrared thermography is used for surface temperature measurements. Results from the experiments confirm the passive surface temperature control, demonstrating temperature variations between the strips. Furthermore, the physics-informed thermal model, with boundary conditions derived from actual wind tunnel conditions, predicts non-uniform surface temperature distributions that quantitatively align with the experimental results. Higher temperature differences between the strips of dissimilar materials can be achieved by increasing the difference between the recovery temperature and the initial temperature. These results validate the proposed actuation method’s ability to generate significant spanwise surface temperature variations. This validation of
the actuation method serves as a prerequisite for future experimental campaigns, which will focus on measuring the induced velocity streaks and assessing their efficacy for boundary layer transition delay in hypersonic environments.
the actuation method serves as a prerequisite for future experimental campaigns, which will focus on measuring the induced velocity streaks and assessing their efficacy for boundary layer transition delay in hypersonic environments.
Date Issued
2026-02-01
Date Acceptance
2026-01-12
Citation
Experiments in Fluids, 2026, 67 (2)
ISSN
0723-4864
Publisher
Springer
Journal / Book Title
Experiments in Fluids
Volume
67
Issue
2
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2026. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
License URL
Identifier
10.1007/s00348-026-04177-3
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
ARTN 26
Date Publish Online
2026-02-03