Study of Flow Over Oscillating Airfoil Models at a Mach Number of 7.0 in Helium
A wind-tunnel study of unsteady flow at a Mach number of 7 in helium has been conducted on several sting-mounted wedge, double-wedge, and flat-plate airfoil models with three different leading-edge radii. The data were obtained by taking high-speed schlieren motion pictures of the decaying motion of the model as it was released from an initial deflection. The shock-wave position observed on the sharp-leading-edge models during the oscillation was compared with that obtained by use of unsteady flow theory as well as steady-state theory. Comparison of theoretical results indicated that no unsteady-flow effects exist over the range of reduced frequencies k, 0.007 less than equal than k less than or equal 0.030, studied experimentally. The experimental results confirmed this finding as no unsteady-flow effects were detected in this reduced-frequency range. Comparison of shock-wave positions measured for the blunt models with those calculated by steady-state methods indicated fair agreement.