Interaction of two supersonic radial gas flows

Abstract

The flow resulting from the collision of two spherically symmetric supersonic gas streams generated by three-dimensional sources has been studied within the framework of the inviscid perfect gas model. When the characteristics of both sources are the same, the problem reduces to that of the interaction between a spherically symmetric flow and a plane barrier [1, 2]. By means of a certain passage to the limit, the flow from one of the sources can be reduced to a uniform supersonic gas flow. In this case the problem reduces to the problem of uniform gas flow past a source considered in [1, 3, 4]. The resulting flows are investigated with reference to all the parameters characterizing the two sources. The shock wave structure, both in the neighborhood of and at points remote from the axis of symmetry, is studied, together with the distributions of the gas dynamic quantities in the shock layers; certain similarity laws are established. The astrophysical applications of the problem associated, in particular, with a certain x-ray radiation mechanism in binary stellar systems [5] are of particular interest.