Numerical Investigation of Supersonic Dense-Gas Boundary Layers

A study of dense-gas effects on the laminar, transitional and turbulent characteristics of boundary layer flows is conducted. The laminar similarity solution shows that temperature variations are small due to the high specific heats of dense gases, leading to velocity profiles close to the incompressible ones. Nevertheless, the complex thermodynamics of the base flow has a major impact on unstable modes, which bear similarities with those obtained for a strongly cooled wall. Numerical simulations of spatially developing boundary layers yield turbulent statistics for the dense gas flow that remain closer to the incompressible regime than perfect gas ones despite the presence of strongly compressible structures.