On the Use of Laser Tomography Techniques for Validating CFD Simulations of the Flow in Supersonic Ejectors

This paper reviews some possibilities offered by several flow visualization methods to validate numerical simulations of the flow in supersonic air ejectors. The visualizations techniques are all based on the laser sheet method but differ from each other by the kind of the illumination source, the polarization direction of the incident light and the type of the scattering tracers. Each of these methods enables the visualization of specific flow phenomena (shock structure, condensation and mixing processes, flow instabilities). The experimental flow visualizations obtained using these methods are compared with numerical flow visualizations and are proven very effective to help in the validation of CFD simulations.