Propagation of a planar shock wave along a convex–concave ramp

Abstract

The propagation of a normal shock wave along a coupled convex–concave surface of equal radii has been analysed experimentally and numerically in this study. The experimental and numerical studies were conducted using a similar geometry as of that used by Ram et al. (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 768, 2015, pp. 219–239) for studying the shock wave transition from regular reflection to Mach reflection. Many interesting flow features such as shock wave transitions over the ramp, characteristics of the induced flow behind the shock wave and the development of a stationary separation shock wave have been observed in the study. The numerical results are validated with experimental data. While the shock wave transitions over the ramp are found to depend mainly on the ramp geometry, the characteristics of the stationary shock wave and the flow separation in the concave region of the ramp surface have been found to vary with the shock wave Mach numbers.