An Engineering Approach to the Design of Laminarizing Nozzle Flows

Abstract

Despite intensive research into laminarization over the past twenty years, there has resulted hitherto no prediction method suitable for ab intio engineering design applications. Following a critical survey of currently proposed prediction criteria, this paper presents experimental evidence for a new prediction scheme applicable for the first time to compressible adiabatic flows. It is shown that this scheme is readily applicable for engineering design purposes. Extension to nonadiabatic flows is discussed.