A good understanding of turbulent compressible flows is essential to the design and operation of high-speed vehicles. Such flows occur, for example, in the external flow over the surfaces of supersonic aircraft, and in the internal flow through the engines. Our ability to predict the aerodynamic lift, drag, propulsion and maneuverability of high-speed vehicles is crucially dependent on our knowledge of turbulent shear layers, and our understanding of their behavior in the presence of shock waves and regions of changing pressure. Turbulent Shear Layers in Supersonic Flow provides a comprehensive introduction to the field, and helps provide a basis for future work in this area. Wherever possible we use the available experimental work, and the results from numerical simulations to illustrate and develop a physical understanding of turbulent compressible flows.

Summary: The present report consists of two parts. The first part deals with the two-dimensional stationary flow in the presence of local supersonic zones. A numerical method of integration of the equation of gas dynamics is developed. Proceeding from solutions at great distance from the body the flow pattern is calculated step by step. Accordingly the related body form is obtained at the end of the calculation. The second part treats the relationship between the displacement thickness of laminar and turbulent boundary layers and the pressure distribution at high speeds. The stability of the boundary layer is investigated, resulting in basic differences in the behavior of subsonic and supersonic flows. Lastly, the decisive importance of the boundary layer for the pressure distribution, particularly for thin profiles, is demonstrated.

Experiments have been carried out to test the accuracy of laser-Doppler instrumentation for measurement of Reynolds stresses in turbulent boundary layers in supersonic flow. Two facilities were used to study flow at constant pressure. In one facility, data were obtained on a flat plate at M sub e = 0.1, with Re sub Theta up to 8,000. In the other, data were obtained on an adiabatic nozzle wall at M sub e = 0.6, 0.8, 1.0, 1.3, and 2.2, with the Re sub Theta = 23,000 and 40,000. This report is limited to a description of the mean flow as observed using Pitot-tube, Preston-tube, and floating-element instrumentation. Emphasis is on the use of similarity laws with Van Driest scaling and on the inference of the shearing-stress profile and the normal velocity component from the equations of mean motion. The experimental data are tabulated.