An experimental investigation was performed to determine the effect of a surface-to-gap wall temperature discontinuity on the heat transfer within space shuttle, reusable surface insulation (RSI), tile gaps submerged in a thick turbulent boundary layer. Heat-transfer measurements were obtained on a flat-plate, single-gap model submerged in a turbulent tunnel wall boundary layer at a nominal free-stream Mach number of 10.3 and free-stream Reynolds numbers per meter of 1.5 x 106, 3.3 x 106, and 7.8 x 106. Surface-to-gap wall temperature discontinuities of varying degree were created by heating the surface of the model upstream of the instrumented gap. The sweep angle of the gap was varied between 0° and 60°; gap width and depth were held constant.nA surface-to-gap wall temperature discontinuity (surface temperature greater than gap wall temperature) results in increased heat transfer to the near-surface portion of the gap, as compared with the heat transfer under isothermal conditions, while decreasing the heat transfer to the deeper portions of the gap. The nondimensionalized heat transfer to the near-surface portion of the gap was found to decrease with increasing Reynolds number; in the deeper portion of the gap, the heat transfer increased with Reynolds number.
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