Reflection of cylindrical converging shock wave over a plane wedge

Abstract

The cylindrical converging shock reflection over a plane wedge is investigated experimentally and numerically in a specially designed shock tube which converts a planar shock into a cylindrical one. When the converging shock is moving along the wedge, both the shock strength and the incident angle are changing, which provides the possibility for the wave transition. The results show that both regular reflection (RR) and Mach reflection (MR) are found on the wedge with different initial incident angles. The wave transitions from direct Mach reflection (DiMR) to inverse Mach reflection (InMR) and further to transitioned regular reflection (TRR) are observed with appropriate initial incident angles. The instability development in the shear layer and strong vortices formation near the wall are evident, which are ascribed not only to the interaction of two shear layers but also to the shock impact and the shock converging effect. Because of the flow unsteadiness after the converging shock, the detachment criterion provides a good estimation for the RR → MR transition, but fails to predict the DiMR → InMR transition, and MR is found to persist slightly below the mechanical equilibrium condition. A hysteresis process is found in the MR → TRR transition and becomes more apparent as the increase of the initial incident angle due to the shock converging effect.