A study of the interaction between a glancing shock wave and a turbulent boundary layer

An oblique shock generated by a variable-angle wedge on the side wall of a wind tunnel, has been used to investigate the three-dimensional glancing interaction problem. The shock interacts with the turbulent boundary layer growing along the side wall. Two related test programmes have been completed using a 2.5 x 2.5 inch intermittent tunnel and a 9 x 9 inch continuous-running tunnel. For both the test programmes, the Mach number was approximately 2.5 and the Reynolds number relative to the wall boundary-layer thickness 5 x 10 4 . The experimental results include oil-flow pictures, vapour-screen and smoke photographs,wall pressure distributions, local heat transfers, wall surface temperatures and viscous layer surveys. The experimental results suggest that the interaction reg10n consists of two different viscous layers between which an ordinary separation can take place, (the double viscous layer flow-field model). The three- dimensional separation is found to depend significantly on the pressure rise in the direction normal to the swept shock. In this sense the separation is similar to the two-dimensional case.