A Numerical Investigation on the Equivalence of Shock−Wave/ Boundary-Layer Interactions using a Two Equations RANS Model

Abstract

A detailed numerical investigation of two different modes of shock wave-turbulent boundary layer interaction (SWBLI) is presented. Equivalence of ramp induced SWBLI (R-SWBLI), and impingement shock based SWBLI (I-SWBLI) is explored from the computational study using an in-house developed compressible flow solver. Multiple flow deflection angles and ramp angles are employed for this study. For all the investigated cases, a freestream Mach number of 2.96 and Reynolds number of 3.47×107m−1 are considered. The k−ε model with the improved wall function of present solver predicted wall pressure distributions and separation bubble sizes very close to the experimental measurements. However, the separation bubble size is slightly over overpredicted by the k−ω model in most of the cases. The effect of overall flow deflection angle and upstream boundary layer thickness on the SWBLI phenomenon is also studied. A nearly linear variation in separation bubble size is observed with changes in overall flow deflection angle and upstream boundary layer thickness. However, the equivalence of SWBLI is noted to be independent of these two parameters. The undisturbed boundary thickness at the beginning of the interaction is identified as the most adequate scaling parameter for the length of the separated region.