Interaction between laser-induced plasma and shock wave over a blunt body in a supersonic flow

Abstract

The interaction of the laser-induced plasma produced by a pulse laser energy deposition with the shock wave over a blunt body in a freestream Mach number of 3 is studied numerically and experimentally. The unsteady flow phenomena during the interaction are analysed by the comparison of the flow structures between experiment and calculation to understand the effect of the energy deposition on the reduction of the pressure on the wall of the blunt body. The stagnation point pressure on the centre-line of the blunt body is compared between experiment and calculation to confirm the qualitative feature of the unsteady flowfields so analysed. The present result shows that the unsteady flow phenomena are consistent with the time variation of the stagnation point pressure, and that the time variation of the pressure is in a good agreement between experiment and calculation. The drag averaged over an interaction time is evaluated based on the calculated data.