FLEET Velocimetry Measurements of Boundary Layer Transition on a Hollow Cylinder in Mach 7 Flow

Femtosecond laser electronic excitation tagging (FLEET) velocimetry, IR thermography, and focused laser differential interferometry (FLDI) measurements of the transitional boundary layer region on a hollow-cylinder model in Mach 7 flow were done and compared with a recently developed Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) compatible transition model developed by researchers at NASA LaRC that was incorporated into a finite volume solver. Specifically, comparisons are made by means of skin-friction, surface heating, velocity profile shape factor, and more in the spirit of assessing the performance of such transition models. The favorable agreement between the CFD and experimental results provides the first independent assessment of this data-driven transition model. Furthermore, the presented velocity profile measurements represent some of the most comprehensive results for a hypersonic transitional boundary layer to date.