J. of Thermal Science Vol.15, No.

Flow Visualization around a Double Wedge Airfoil Model with Focusing

Schlieren System

Masashi KASHITANI Yutaka YAMAGUCHI

Department of Aerospace Engineering, National Defense Academy, 1-10-20 Hashirimizu, Yokosuka,
Kanagawa 239-8686, Japan

In the present study, aerodynamic characteristics of the double wedge airfoil model were investigated in a
transonic flow by using the shock tube as an intermittent wind tunnel. The driver and driven gases of the shock
tube are dry air. The airfoil model of double wedge has the span of 58 mm, chord length c = 75 mm and its
maximum thickness is 7.5 mm. The apex of the double wedge airfoil model is located on the 35% chord length
from the leading edge. The range of hot gas Mach numbers are from 0.80 to 0.88, and the Reynolds numbers
based on chord length are 3.111053.49105, respectively. The flow visualizations were performed by the sharp
focusing schlieren method which can visualize the three dimensional flow fields. The results show that the
present system can visualize the transonic flowfield clearer than the previous system, and the shock wave profiles
of the center of span in the test section are visualized

Keywords: shock wave, schlieren method, transonic flow, double wedge, airfoil model.
CLC number: V211.7 Document code: A Article ID: 1003-2169(2006)01-0031-06

Introduction along the optical path. The schlieren method is often

It is well known that the double wedge airfoil
models often are used at the supersonic and hypersonic
vehicle[1,2]. For instance, we are able to list the vertical
tail of X-15 hypersonic research vehicle and the
stabilizing fin of rocket. These vehicles pass through the
transonic speed at the actual employment (taking off and
landing of vehicles). However it is not understood
enough the aerodynamic characteristics of the double
wedge airfoil model under the transonic flow conditions.
And it is considered that accumulating the aerodynamics
basic data of such cases is very important. Visualization
of the flow field around the model is one of the most
valuable and basic step on the aerodynamic development.
The flows around the airfoil model are strongly affected
by the side walls and the boundary layer developed along
the wall in the wind tunnel testing. So it is very
important to visualize the three dimensional flow for the
investigation of the aerodynamics characteristics on the
two dimensional airfoil model.
The principal optical visualization methods used to
examine flow density variations, for instance schlieren,
shadowgraph and interferometry method obtain the
information related to refraction of the light integrated
Received June 27, 2005
Masashi KASHITANI: Associate Professor
used because it is easier to set up the system than
interferometry, and it can obtain more sensitive photograph
than shadowgraphy. In general, a conventional schlieren
system is unable to distinguish between the density
gradients occurring at various positions along the light
path direction, since this system uses the parallel lights
between the concave mirrors. Whereas, a sharp focusing
schlieren system improved by Weinstein can give any
cross section density gradients in the flow. This is a
useful means to examine the three dimensional flow
fields[36].
In the present study, a sharp focusing schlieren
system is developed for the visualization of shock tube
airfoil flow to investigate the flow field around the double
wedge airfoil model at the center of span. Moreover we
will exchange the source grid from our past one[6] to
obtain more bright and uniformly images, and we will
clarify the visualization characteristics of this instrument.
Experimental Setup
Sharp focusing schlieren system
Fig.1 shows an optical arrangement of a sharp
focusing schlieren system. This system is constructed by
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the extended light source, source grid, fresnel lens,
focusing lens, cutoff grid and image plane. The source
grid is necessary to obtain a multiple source of light.
Letter l means the distance from the flow field to the
focusing lens, letter l means the distance from the
focusing lens to the final image location, letter L means
the distance from the source grid to the focusing lens and
letter L means the distance from the focusing lens to the
cutoff grid. Also we set up the diffuser sheet at the front
of extended light source to obtain the uniform lighting at
the test section. The conspicuous property of this system
that we can visualize the slice image of flow field in the
test section depends on the multiple light source and
divergent optical path. The multiple light source is made
by an extended light source and source grid of closely
spaced thin lines. The fresnel lens and source grid has to
be larger than the test area to obtain the large solid angle.
The cutoff grid is placed at the focal point to cut off part
of multiple light source image, same as a knife-edge of
conventional schlieren system.
Cutoff grid
Fresnel lens
Flow field in
Image plane
the test section
Extended light
source
Source
grid
Diffuser Focusing lens
sheet
l L'
L l'
Fig.1 Optical arrangement of sharp focusing schlieren system
For a sharp focusing schlieren system, a conspicuous
feature is the ability to examine two dimensional slices
of flow. The effective thickness of this slice that the
depth at which the loss of resolution exceeds a prescribed
threshold is defined by equations (1), (2) and (3) as
follows[3]:
DS = 2 wl / D (1)
Where the factor of two covers both sides of the focal
plane, D the diameter of focusing lens, w is the width of
the prescribed threshold which may be taken as the
length scale of smallest detail of interest in the flow field.
In the present study, w is chosen to be 2 mm(we use M2
bolt in the experiments.). For this case, the depth of
unsharp focus DU is:
DU = 2 2l / D (2)
In this system, we try to estimate the appropriate
source grid to obtain more bright and uniform image.
Fig.2 shows the present source grid to obtain the multiple
light which is consisted of multiple horizontal dark bands
Journal of Thermal Science, Vol.15, No.1, 2006
and clear apertures. The width of horizontal lines is 2.0
mm and the width of the clear spaces is 0.25 mm. Using
a combination of xenon flash lamp (HAMAMATSU
PHOTONICS L7685) and fresnel lens, the multiple light
source is made. The final image is composed of a large
number of overlapping images. Number of pairs of
blended lines in the focusing schlieren image is shown
as follows.
= Dn(l ' L' ) /(2l ) (3)
Where, D is diameter of focusing lens(Asahi Opt.: f =
135 mm, F = 3.5, D = 38.5 mm), n is the grid lines per
mm at cutoff grid, l is a distance from the flow field to
the focusing lens, l is the distance from the focusing lens
to the final image location and L is the distance from the
focusing lens to the cutoff grid location. Weinstein
observed that >5 is required to obtain reasonably
uniform illumination over all focal location[3]. In the
present system, we estimate 6 at the center of the
span in the test section. Moreover, the cutoff grid is made
by photographically exposing and developing a negative
image of the source grid on Kodaline film.
2 .0 0 .2 5 U n it(m m )
Fig.2 Detail size of the source grid
Shock tube
A schematic diagram of the present conventional gas
driven shock tube is shown in Fig.3. The time tm (testing
time) is the ideal time of the duration of the hot gas. The
driver tube has the circular cross section with a diameter
of 160 mm. The driven tube is the rectangular cross
section with a width of 60 mm and a height of 150 mm.
The driver and driven gases are dry air. A Mylar film of
0.075 mm thickness is employed as a diaphragm. The
speed of the primary shock wave is determined from the
time difference between the two pressure transducers
(PCB:111A21) installed at the upstream side wall at 210
mm and 475 mm from the center of optical observation
window, respectively. In the test section, both upper and
lower walls have 4 slots, and the plenum chambers are
attached to them to minimize the effect of upper and
lower wall interference that occurs due to the existence
of an airfoil model. The open ratio of the slotted wall is
20%. Each chamber has about 1.1% volume of the test
section. The hot gas Mach numbers are from 0.78 to 0.84,
the Reynolds numbers based on chord length are
3.111053.49105.