Asymptotic solution of the thin viscous shock layer equations at low Reynolds numbers for a cold surface

Abstract

Hypersonic three-dimensional viscous rarefied gas flow past blunt bodies in the neighborhood of the stagnation line is considered. The question of the applicability of the gasdynamic thin viscous shock layer model [1] is investigated for the transition flow regime from continuum to free-molecular flow. It is shown that for a power-law temperature dependence of the viscosity coefficient μ∼T^ω the quantity (Reε)^1/(1+ω), where ε = (γ − 1)/2γ and γ is the specific heat ratio, is an important determining parameter of the hypersonic flow at low Reynolds numbers. In the case of a cold surface approximate asymptotic solutions of the thin viscous shock layer equations are obtained for noslip conditions on the surface and generalized Rankine-Hugoniot relations on the shock wave at low Reynolds numbers. These solutions give simple analytic expressions for the thermal conductivity and friction coefficients as functions of the determining flow parameters. As the Reynolds number tends to zero, the values of the thermal conductivity and friction coefficients determined by this solution tend to their values in free-molecular flow for an accommodation coefficient equal to unity. This tending of the thermal conductivity and friction coefficients to the free-molecular limit takes place for both two-and three-dimensional flows. The asymptotic solutions are compared with numerical calculations and experimental data.