Research Projects

The global demand for energy has strained engineering products, particularly in industries like air transport and process, requiring faster speeds and greater through-flow rates. This results in larger airspeeds over components like aircraft wings, control surfaces, intakes, and compressor and turbine blades. However, the occurrence of shock waves poses a limiting phenomenon, preventing further performance improvement without penalty. This study aims to study the interaction between an oscillating oblique shock wave and the boundary layer in the transonic regime using experimental techniques. The goal is to understand this interaction and develop a model to predict unsteady pressure fluctuations at the solid surface as the shock wave interacts with boundary layers of different characteristics. The experiments will be conducted in an intermittent blowdown transonic tunnel, which can generate an oscillating oblique shock wave to emulate low-amplitude oscillation in a vibrating system. The study will use trip wires, wall static pressures, high-speed schlieren imaging, and time series data analysis to explain and predict unsteady loads, helping developers design aerodynamic shapes for structures that create shocks.