Study of shock wave/boundary layer interaction from the perspective of nonequilibrium effects

Abstract

Shock wave/boundary layer interaction (SWBLI) is a widespread phenomenon in supersonic flows and has received extensive attention. The boundary layer is generated due to viscous stress, which is a kind of macroscopic manifestation of molecular nonequilibrium motion, namely, nonequilibrium effects. In this paper, an investigation is conducted on SWBLI from the perspective of nonequilibrium effects. A method is proposed for studying nonequilibrium effects based on the Navier–Stokes (NS) equations and the Reynolds-averaged NS (RANS) equations. The SWBLI at Mach 2 and Mach 6 is concerned. The results show that nonequilibrium effects associated with the incident shock wave are weaker than that in the boundary layer for a Mach 2 incoming flow. Neither the separation shock wave nor the incident shock wave has an obvious interaction with nonequilibrium effects in the boundary layer. However, the nonequilibrium effects of the incident shock wave are stronger for a Mach 6 incoming flow, and it has an obvious interaction with the nonequilibrium effect in the boundary layer. We also discuss the relation between nonequilibrium effects and energy conversion in the boundary layer. The analysis reveals that changes in the gradients of total energy-related nonequilibrium effects contribute to the change in total energy by influencing the gradient of the heat flux and the power of viscous stress. Thus, this work provides the flow characteristics of boundary layer separation and energy conversion mechanism of SWBLI from the perspective of nonequilibrium effects, as well as the interaction of nonequilibrium effects between the shock wave and boundary layer.