Stability of Supersonic Boundary Layer on the Sublimation Surface

Abstract

Theoretical investigation of the supersonic flat-plate boundary-layer properties under conditions of the surface material sublimation has been performed for Mach number M = 2. Naphthalene (C10H8) was chosen as the substance for the sublimation coating. Performed computations show that with increasing surface temperature due to stagnation temperature increase, the mass flow rate of naphthalene evaporation increases. Calculations performed on the basis of linear stability theory show that such an increase of evaporation leads to a noticeable decrease of the local growth rates of unstable perturbations in the boundary layer. It is found that stabilization of the boundary layer by the surface coating sublimation occurs with increasing temperature of the sublimation coating, reaching a maximum near the triple point temperature of the sublimation material. The carried out experiments confirmed the stabilizing effect of surface sublimation.