On flows behind shock waves reflected from a solid wall

Abstract

The flow fields associated with the interaction of a normal shock wave with a plane wall kept at a constant temperature were studied based on kinetic theory which can describe appropriately the shock structure and its reflection process. With the use of a difference scheme, the time developments of the distributions of the fluid dynamic quantities (velocity, temperature, pressure and number density of the gas) were obtained numerically from the BGK model of the Boltzmann equation subject to the condition of diffusive-reflection at the wall for several cases of incident Mach number:M ₁=1.2, 1.5, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0 and 6.0. The reflection process of the shocks is shown explicitly together with the resulting formation of the flow fields as time goes on. The nonzero uniform velocity toward the wall occurring between the viscous boundary layer and the reflected shock wave is found to be fairly large, the magnitude of which is of the order of several percent of the velocity induced behind the incident shock, decreasing as the incident Mach number increases. It is also seen that a region of positive velocity (away from the wall) within the viscous boundary layer manifests itself in the immediate vicinity of the wall, which is distinct for larger incident Mach numbers. Some of the calculated density profiles are compared with available experimental data and also with numerical results based on the Navier-Stokes equations. The agreement between the three results is fairly good except in the region close to the wall, where the difference in the conditions of these studies and the inappropriateness of the Navier-Stokes equations manifest themselves greatly in the gas behavior.