Corner effects in reflecting oblique shock-wave/boundarylayer interactions

A separated oblique shock reflection on the floor of a rectangular cross-section wind tunnel has been investigated at M=2.5. The study aims to determine if and how separations occurring in the corners influence the main interaction as observed around the centreline of the floor. By changing the size of the corner separations through localised suction and small corner obstructions it was shown that the shape of the separated region in the centre was altered considerably. The separation length along the floor centreline was also modified by changes to the corner separation. A simple physical model has been proposed to explain the coupling between these separated regions based on the existence of compression or shock waves caused by the displacement effect of corner separation. These corner shocks alter the adverse pressure gradient imposed on the boundary-layer elsewhere which can lead to local reductions or increases of separation length. It is suggested that a typical oblique shock wave/boundary-layer interaction in rectangular channels features several zones depending on the relative position of the corner shocks and the main incident shock wave. Based on these findings the dependence of centre-line separation length on effective wind tunnel width is hypothesised. This requires further verification through experiments or computation. © 2013 by H. Babinsky.