Density field of supersonic separated flow past an afterbody nozzle using tomographic reconstruction of BOS data

The background oriented Schlieren (BOS) technique has been applied to determine the density field in an oblique shock-separated turbulent boundary flow. Measurements were made for two cases, namely, with/without jet flow from the afterbody which is a nozzle. In addition, oil flow and Schlieren visualizations were carried out—the results show certain upstream features of interest including shock excursions. The mean density field from BOS is discussed along with results from conventional Schlieren flow visualization. The data extracted from the mean density field obtained through BOS have been compared for the jet-off and jet-on cases. The data obtained also show the mean density in the base region (jet-off case) to be about 50% of the freestream density and match the isentropic values for the underexpanded jet at the exit. The study involving shock–boundary interaction, movement of freestream shock over the afterbody in the presence of a jet plume provides understanding of flow physics in a flow regime where whole field velocity measurements are extremely difficult.