On the viscous hypersonic blunt body problem

Abstract

The viscous hypersonic flow past an axisymmetric blunt body is analysed based upon the Navier-Stokes equations. It is assumed that the fluid is a perfect gas having constant specific heats, a constant Prandtl number, P, whose numerical value is of order one, and a viscosity coefficient varying as a power, ω, of the absolute temperature. Limiting forms of solutions are studied as the free-stream Mach number, M, and the free-stream Reynolds number based on the body nose radius, R, go to infinity, and ε = (γ − 1)/(γ + 1), where γ is the ratio of the specific heats, and δ = 1/(γ − 1) M2 go to zero.