Transonic Shock Buffet on the Benchmark Supercritical Win

The Benchmark Supercritical Wing (BSCW) is studied as part of the Third Aeroelastic Prediction Workshop (AePW-3). The BSCW was tested at the NASA Langley Transonic Dynamic Tunnel in two campaigns, one studying transonic unsteady aerodynamics, the other studying transonic flutter of the spring-suspended wing. The AePW-3 focuses on computational transonic fluid-structure interactions and flutter prediction with comparison to wind tunnel data. In the wind-tunnel test, shock wave unsteadiness was observed at a test point at Mach 0.8 and angle-of-attack of 5 deg, indicating the presence of transonic shock buffet. The goal of this paper is to study the rigid BSCW buffet characteristics. The results reported herein support the notion the shock buffet on the rigid BSCW is essentially two-dimensional in terms of frequency content, shock wave structure, and physical mechanism. The strong tip effects and considerable extent of flow separation behind the shock result in a reduced shock excursion distance, and a wavier shock front, compared to an infinite straight wing.