Abstract: Recently, introducing a transition predicting model into the Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) environment has been paid more and more attention. Langtry proposed a correlation-based transition model in 2006, which was built strictly on local variables. However, two core correlations in the model had not been published until 2009. In this paper, after considerable analyses and discussions of the mechanism of this transition model and a series of numerical validations in the skin friction coefficient of flat plate boundary layers, a new correlation based on free-stream turbulence intensity is developed, and the empirical correlation of the transition onset momentum thickness Reynold number aiming at the hypersonic transition is improved. Low-speed/transonic airfoils and a hypersonic double wedge flat are tested to prove the reliability and practicability of this correlation.

Key words: transition empirical correlation, T3 series flat experiment, S809/HS0213 airfoil, hypersonic double wedge flat