A study of the turbulent separated-flow region occurring at a compression corner in supersonic flow

Abstract

The turbulent separated-flow region occurring at a compression corner under certain circumstances at supersonic speed has been examined in the light of recent improvements to base pressure theory (McDonald 1964). This base pressure theory is further extended from what could be termed a single-layer model of the re-attaching boundary layer to a two-layer model, thus enabling the inviscid shock configuration which occurs at the corner to be determined. Application of this analysis to some experimental results indicates a substantial measure of agreement.While this analysis has been framed for estimating the scale of the corner interaction, the extension can of course be applied to increase the range of initial boundary-layer thicknesses to which McDonald's analysis is applicable. An example of such an application is shown to be in good agreement with experiment.