Geometric effect on compressible rectangular cavity flows

Experiments were performed to study the geometric effects on the compressible rectangular cavity flows at Mach 0.33, 0.62, and 0.82. Typical characteristics of mean surface pressure distributions show a slight pressure variation near the front face, a local peak surface pressure ahead of the rear corner, and a low pressure immediately downstream of the cavity. The length-to-width ratio of a cavity has a strong effect on the recompression and downstream expansion near the rear face, and the Mach number effect is minimized. Surface pressure fluctuation distribution show a damping near the leading edge at a higher freestream Mach number, a minor peak near the middle of the cavity floor, an increase toward the cavity rear face, and a peak value immediately downstream of the cavity. The amplitude of the pressure fluctuations ahead of the rear face increases with the length-to-width ratio for transitional- and closed-type cavity flows, and the maximum of peak pressure fluctuations rises rapidly for the transitional cavity flows at higher length-to-width ratio.