Fluid dynamics and aero-optics of turrets

A summary of research efforts for last several years on fluid-dynamics and aero-optics of hemisphere-on-cylinder turrets with flat and conformal windows is presented. The topology of flow behind turrets and both steady and unsteady sources of optical distortions are discussed. Scaling laws for levels of optical aberrations are proposed and results of several experimental studies are compared and discussed. Effects of passive and active flow control in mitigation of aero-optical environment around turrets, as well as current computational studies of aero-optics of turrets are summarized and discussed.