Experimental study of boundary layer transition on a heated flat plate

Abstract

A detailed investigation to the document momentum and thermal development of boundary layers undergoing natural transition on a heated flat plate was performed. Experimental results of both overall and conditionally sampled characteristics of laminar, transitional, and low Reynolds number turbulent boundary layers are presented. Measurements were done in a low-speed, closed-loop wind tunnel with a freestream velocity of 100 ft/s and zero pressure gradient over a range of freestream turbulence intensities from 0.4 to 6 percent. The distributions of skin friction, heat transfer rate, and Reynolds shear stress were all consistent with previously published data. Reynolds analogy factors for momentum thickness Reynolds number, Re(sub theta) less than 2300 were found to be well predicted by laminar and turbulent correlations which accounted for an unheated starting length and uniform heat flux. A small dependence of turbulence results on the freestream turbulence intensity was observed