The Occurrence of Stagnation Bubbles in Supersonic Jet Impingement Flows

Abstract

SummaryThis paper reports an experimental investigation into the stagnation bubbles found in the shock layers of some supersonic jets impinging on perpendicular flat plates at small nozzle-to-plate distances. The experiments used twelve contoured nozzles within the Mach number range 1.42 to 2.83. Surface pressures were measured on the plate and free-jet pitot pressure distributions were obtained at the level of the centre of the plate shock. Schlieren pictures were taken of both impinging and free jets. It was found that the bubbles result from the interaction of the plate shock with very weak shock waves which are produced in the jet either by small imperfections in the nozzle wall or by slight inaccuracies in the design or production of the nozzle contour. The bubbles can be eliminated by suitable improvements to the nozzle. Other anomalous flows produced by shock interactions are described and explanations offered. It is shown that the bubbles sometimes encountered at close plate spacings with conical nozzles are also due to shock waves. However, for wide-angled nozzles, internal shocks can be an inherent part of the flow from the nozzle and the bubbles which they produce are thus an inherent part of the impingement flow. From physical arguments concerning the main factors involved in producing a bubble, a parameter is constructed whose values are shown to be a good criterion for whether a bubble occurs or not.