Numerical simulation of laminar hypersonic shock-boundary layer interaction

Object of the present investigation is the numerical simulation of a steady and laminar shock-boundary layer interaction over a flat plate. Both an implicit dual-time stepping and an explicit time stepping Runge-Kutta scheme with a flux difference splitting scheme proposed by Roe, Harten, and Yee for the convective terms and central differences for the viscous terms were used to solve the Navier-Stokes equations. Results are presented for two- and three-dimensional flows, indicating the characteristic features: the impinging and reflected shock, a zone of separated flow with a large primary and a secondary counter rotating vortex, and finally a weak shock, generated by the separation bubble. It is known from experiments that three-dimensional shock boundary layer interactions may generate Goertler vortices downstream from the reattachment line, with their axes aligned to the direction of the main flow. It is one of the main issues to demonstrate that these Goertler vortices can be simulated numerically. Results are presented for a flow with a free stream Mach number Ma∝ = 6. They are found to be in good agreement with the experimental data available.