Evaluation of 2D Roughness Induced Transition for EXPERT Vehicle Design

An experimental investigation of the e ect of a backward facing step on a hypersonic boundary layer has been carried out at the VKI H3 Hypersonic Wind Tunnel, using a scaled model of the EXPERT vehicle at a freestream Mach number of 6 and at a Reynolds number varying between 18 10/m and 26 10/m. Experiments are carried out, with and without an isolated roughness element downstream of the backward facing step, to study the impact of the 2D disturbance on the EXPERT "Isolated Roughness Element Scienti c Payload PL5". Heat transfer distribution around the model has been measured using the Infrared Thermography technique, to compute the Stanton number distribution. Complementary data on the heat transfer have been extracted using the sublimation technique.