Turbulence measurements in high-speed wind tunnels using focusing laser differential interferometry

Characterization of freestream disturbances and their effect on laminar boundary layer transition is of great importance in high-speed wind tunnel testing, where significant differences between the behavior of scale-model and free-flight transition have long been noted. However, the methods traditionally used to perform this characterization in low-speed flows present significant difficulties when applied to supersonic and especially hypersonic wind tunnels. The design and theory of a focusing laser differential interferometer (FLDI) instrument, originally invented by Smeets at the Institut Saint-Louis in the 1970s and used recently by Parziale in the CalTech T5 shock tunnel, is presented. It is a relatively-simple, non-imaging common-path interferometer for measuring refractive signals from transition and turbulence, and it has a unique ability to look through facility windows, ignore sidewall boundary-layers and vibration, and concentrate only on the refractive signal near a pair of sharp beam foci in the core flow. The instrument's low cost and ease of implementation make it a promising alternative to traditional hot-wire anemometry and particle-based methods for turbulence characterization. Benchtop experiments using a turbulent supersonic air jet demonstrate its focusing ability, frequency response, unwanted signal rejection, and ease of use. The instrument is used to optically interrogate the flow in the Penn State University Supersonic Wind Tunnel and USAF AEDC Hypervelocity Tunnel 9 for measurement of the overall intensity and spectra of freestream disturbances. Precise characterization of the strength and spectral content of the disturbances provides insight into their nature and potential effect upon boundary layer transition. A special feature of the FLDI instrument used here is the replacement of traditional fixed Wollaston prisms with variable Sanderson prisms for laser-beam separation and recombination.