This thesis presents a joint experimental/CFD investigation of shock-induced boundary layer separations in hypersonic transitional boundary layers with an emphasis on collapse and re-establishment times of the separation bubble. This study also provides high fidelity measurements and excellent characterisation of the flow field in order to provide benchmark data of a challenging flow configuration with which to benchmark next generation CFD solvers.

The experiments were conducted in the Imperial College Aeronautics Department Number Two Gun Tunnel, a Mach 8.9 axisymmetric facility with a freestream unit Reynolds number of 47 million
An axisymmetric blunt-nosed cylinder fitted with an 8 degree flare forms the primary vehicle for this study, although a 1.3 degree cowl geometry was also used to impinge a shock onto the blunt-nosed cylinder..

The shock boundary layer interaction was designed such that it was separated for a laminar boundary layer and collapsed for a turbulent one. Carefully controlled turbulent spots were generated upstream of the interaction region which passed through the separation causing its collapse and subsequent re-establishment. Two intermittency cases are considered, one where turbulent spot spacing is large and collapse/re-establishment pairs can be considered independent of each other and one where they can not.

Experimental surface quantities through the interaction region are measured using either heat-transfer or pressure measurements and schlieren video is used to diagnose the larger shock structure. Further a non-intrusive toluene PLIF method is assessed for use in this facility and shows promise. CFD simulations are done using an in-house operator split Godunov solver with a Baldwin-Lomax turbulence model. CFD simulations show good agreement with experiment and provides information on flow quantities that would be extremely difficult to measure otherwise.

Collapse times of the separation bubble were found to be fast in relation to characteristic spot passage times. The collapse process is also fast in relation to the surrounding flows ability to adjust, with collapse associated with significant shock curvature of the immediate outboard shock structures. This leads to unsteadiness, with surface pressure measurements exceeding the range bounded by the laminar separated and turbulent collapsed cases. The severity of the unsteadiness appears to be driven by turbulent spot spacing. Re-establishment is considerably slower, showing asymptotic recovery that is likely driven by viscous diffusion rates, taking many characteristic spot passage times to recover.