COMPUTATIONAL STUDY OF SHOCK-WAVE FOCUSING IN A LOG-SPIRAL DUCT

The mechanism of shock wave focusing in a two-dimensional log-spiral duct has been investigated here numerically using a finite volume method. This approach is based on a MUSCL TVD scheme with flux-vector splitting applied to the Euler equations. The isopycnics determined from the calculations are compared with the experimental results obtained by use of holographic interferometric photography and are found to be in excellent qualitative agreement with the experiments. The computational results clarify the details of the wave interactions very near to the focus. In particular, phenomena such as the formation of secondary shock waves prior to the implosion, their interaction with the reflected shock and the formation of vortices after the implosion have been examined.