Computation of hypersonic shock interaction flow fields

Computations have been performed on high enthalpy, hypersonic, laminar compression corner and blunt double cone geometries. Comparisons with experimental surface pressure and heat transfer rate have been made. The results show that the calculations reproduce the experimental data along the flat plate region of compression corner, but that the agreement downstream of the corner ranges from excellent to poor. The computations consistently predict higher pressure downstream of the corner compared to the experiments, but for flows with small separated flow regions the computations match theoretical predictions. Grid converged solutions for the well-separated flows were difficult to obtain, and solutions on 512 × 512 and 1024 × 1024 point grids show significant differences. Computations were unable to reproduce the experimental data from the double cone geometries. The experiments are believed to be steady and laminar, but the computations predict the flow fields to have larger separated flow regions and to be unsteady. The unsteadiness is not seen until 512 × 512 point grids are used.