Heat Transfer to 36.75 and 45 degree Swept Blunt Leading Edges in Free Flight at Mach Numbers from 1.70 to 2.99 and From 2.50 to 4.05

Abstract

A flight investigation has been conducted to study the heat transfer to swept-wing leading edges. A rocket-powered model was used for the investigation and provided data for Mach number ranges of 1.78 to 2.99 and 2.50 to 4.05 with corresponding free-stream Reynolds number per foot ranges of 13.32 x 10(exp 6) to 19.90 x 10(exp 6) and 2.85 x 10(exp 6) to 4.55 x 10(exp 6). The leading edges employed were cylindrically blunted wedges ', three of which were swept 450 with leading-edge diameters of 1/4, 1/2, and 3/4 inch and one swept 36-750 with a leading-edge diameter of 1/2 inch. In the high Reynolds number range, measured values of heat transfer were found to be much higher than those predicted by laminar theory and at the larger values of leading-edge diameter were approaching the values predicted by turbulent theory. For the low Reynolds number range a comparison between measured and theoretical heat transfer showed that increasing the leading-edge diameter resulted in turbulent flow on the cylindrical portion of the leading edge