High-Speed Visualization of the Oscillatory Supersonic Flow Over a Rectangular Cavity

A mechanism of cavity-induced pressure oscillation in supersonic flows is not well understood in spite of a lot of former investigations. Especially, the process by which the pressure wave is generated and the path of the pressure wave propagating inside the cavity remain unclear. In order to clarify these, the oscillatory behaviors in the supersonic flow over a rectangular cavity are visualized by the schlieren method with a high-speed camera in the present study. The inlet Mach number of the flow is 1.68. The length and depth of the cavity are 14.0mm and 11.7mm respectively; i.e., the length-to-depth ratio of the cavity is 1.20. The pressure oscillation near the trailing edge of the cavity is also measured by use of the semiconductor-type pressure transducer simultaneously with the visualization. As a result, the pressure waves propagating inside as well as outside the cavity are successfully visualized. In addition, the relationship between the shear layer displacement, pressure wave generation and pressure oscillation at the trailing edge of the cavity are clarified experimentally.