Flat Plate

                Turbulent flow structures are chaotic and three-dimensional in nature and are hard to predict. Thus, there is a great need to expand upon current understanding of turbulence and the small- and large-scale structures present in turbulent flow fields. One of the most basic turbulent flow fields is the flow over a flat plate. The goal of the flat plate research is to perform qualitative 3-D analysis of a turbulent boundary layer over a flat plate in order to identify the aforementioned structures and their effects on the dynamics of the flow.

                In order to acquire 3-D data of the turbulent boundary layer over a flat plate, smoke is seeded into the subsonic wind tunnel at the inlet. The bottom of the subsonic wind tunnel test section acts as the flat plate in current studies.  The pulse burst laser system emits 532 nm pulse laser sheets into the test section. The laser light scatters off of the smoke particles making the flow field visible. Sequential planar images of a plane of the flow field can be obtained using a high speed camera that is aligned perpendicular to the flow field.  A high-speed scanning mirror is also used to laterally scan the laser sheets the full depth of the test section. Stacks of planar images are obtained and because this occurs almost instantaneously, these images can be image processed and then stacked together to create a 3-D image of the flow field.

                                        
                                                                                                   Flat Plate Test Facility