Pressure Fluctuations in the Regions of Flow Transition,

Measurements of wall-pressure fluctuations during natural flow transition and following laminar separation have been made for two forebodies of revolution. The data indicate enormous pressure fluctuations in regions of transition, which in turn have profound implications relative to cavitation-inception scaling and other naval applications related to the transition phenomenon. The Smith amplification method is extensively used to correlate the measured data with semiempirical calculations. Striking success with this correlation is found. The use of trip wires to reduce pressure fluctuations in regions of flow transition is also discussed.