Stability analysis and transition prediction of hypersonic boundary layer over a blunt cone with small nose bluntness at zero angle of attack

Stability and transition prediction of hypersonic boundary layer on a blunt cone with small nose bluntness at zero angle of attack was investigated. The nose radius of the cone is 0.5 mm; the cone half-angle is 5°, and the Mach number of the oncoming flow is 6. The base flow of the blunt cone was obtained by direct numerical simulation. The linear stability theory was applied for the analysis of the first mode and the second mode unstable waves under both isothermal and adiabatic wall condition, and e^N method was used for the prediction of transition location. The N factor was tentatively taken as 10, as no experimentally confirmed value was available. It is found that the wall temperature condition has a great effect on the transition location. For adiabatic wall, transition would take place more rearward than those for isothermal wall. And despite that for high Mach number flows, the maximum amplification rate of the second mode wave is far bigger than the maximum amplification rate of the first mode wave, the transition location of the boundary layer with adiabatic wall is controlled by the growth of first mode unstable waves. The methods employed in this paper are expected to be also applicable to the transition prediction for the three dimensional boundary layers on cones with angle of attack.