Shock regularization in dense gases by viscous–inviscid interactions

Abstract

Transonic high-Reynolds-number flows through channels which are so narrow that the classical boundary-layer approach fails locally are considered in the presence of a weak stationary normal shock. As a consequence, the properties of the inviscid core and the viscosity-dominated boundary-layer region can no longer be determined in subsequent steps but have to be calculated simultaneously in a small interaction region. Under the requirement that the core-region flow should be considered to be one-dimensional to the leading order the resulting problem of shock–boundary-layer interaction is formulated by the means of matched asymptotic expansions for laminar flows of dense gases (Bethe–Zel'dovich–Thompson, or BZT, fluids). Such fluids have the distinguishing feature that the fundamental derivative of gas dynamics can become negative or even change sign under the thermodynamic conditions to be considered. The regularizing properties of the mechanism of viscous–inviscid interactions on the different anomalous shock forms possible in the flow of dense gases with mixed nonlinearity, namely rarefaction, sonic, double-sonic and split shocks, will be discussed. To this end we show the consistency of the resulting internal-shock profiles because of strong shock–boundary-layer interaction with a generalized shock admissibility criterion formulated for the case of purely inviscid flows. Representative solutions for the internal-shock structures are presented, and the importance of such flow phenomena in technical applications in the near future are shortly discussed by considering estimates of the actual dimensions of the interaction region for a specific representative situation in which the BZT fluid PP10 (C13F22) has been selected.