Gortler vortices behavior and prediction in dual- incident shock-wave/turbulent-boundary-layer interactions

Gortler vortices (GVs) in dual-incident shock-wave/turbulent-boundary-layer interactions (dual-ISWTBLIs) are experimentally investigated in a Mach 2.48 flow. A double-wedge shock generator with two deflection angles of 8 degrees and 5 degrees is used to produce two incident shock waves (ISWs). Flow structures of the experiments with three different shock-wave distances were visualized by the ice-cluster-based planar laser scattering technique at two orthogonal planes (x-y and x-z planes). The images in the x-y plane present three types of flow patterns of dual-ISWTBLIs corresponding to the first type with a triangle-like separation, the second type with a quadrilateral-like separation, and the third type with two isolated interactions induced by the two ISWs. The images in the x-z plane indicate that the GVs exist in the first type of dual-ISWTBLI originating in the vicinity of the apex of the separation region and cover nearly the whole spanwise range of the reattachment region. By comparison, the GVs intermittently occur in the limited spanwise range of the reattachment region in the second type of dual-ISWTBLI. No GVs are observed in the third type of dual-ISWTBLI because no visible separation is induced under the experimental conditions considered in this situation. In addition, based on the wall-pressure distribution in the former two types of dual-ISWTBLIs, this paper proposes a method to estimate the mean-flow streamline curvature in the reattachment region, thereby obtaining the criteria for the existence of GVs, according to which reasonable explanations for the different distributions of GVs in the two types of dual-ISWTBLIs are provided. Published under an exclusive license by AIP Publishing.