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AEM Seminar: Unsteadiness of Shock Wave / Turbulent Boundary Layer Interactions

Noel Clemens, Department Chair, Professor, Bob R. Dorsey Professorship in Engineering and Cockrell Family Chair for Departmental Leadership #2, University of Texas at Austin, Midwest Mechanics Speakers

2:30 PM on 2018-10-05


Abstract:

Shock wave / boundary layer interactions are an important feature of high-speed flow that occur in supersonic aircraft inlets, aircraft control surfaces, missile base flows, nozzles, and rotating machinery. These interactions are often associated with severe boundary layer separation, which is highly unsteady, and which exhibits high fluctuating pressure and heat loads. The unsteady motions are characterized by a wide range of frequencies, including low-frequency motions that are about two orders of magnitude lower than the integral-scale fluctuations in the upstream boundary layer. It is these low-frequency motions that are of most interest because they have been the most difficult to explain and model. In this seminar I will discuss the experimental research on 2D and 3D interactions that we have conducted on this topic over the past 20 years. The discussion will focus on the physical mechanisms that drive the separated flow unsteadiness and will highlight our recent work using 50 kHz particle image velocimetry to obtain information on the time-dependent structure of the of the unsteady motions.

Bio:

Dr. Clemens' research is in the general areas of compressible turbulent flows and turbulent combustion with an emphasis on the use of laser imaging diagnostics to study these flows. His current work focuses on 3D shock wave /boundary layer interactions, inlet unstart, high-speed flow control, flashback in high pressure combustors, turbulent combustion with non-equilibrium, soot production with alternative jet fuels, and high-temperature ablation.

He has served on the faculty of the Cockrell School of Engineering since 1993, and has two years of experience at Sandia National Laboratories. He was named a National Science Foundation Presidential Faculty Fellow in 1996, he served as Editor-in-Chief of Experiments in Fluids from 2009 to 2013, he is a fellow of the American Physical Society, and he currently serves as the ASE/EM department chair.


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