Experimental investigation of interactions between turbulent cylinder wake and spherical shock wave

Abstract

Interactions between a spherical shock wave and a turbulent cylinder wake are studied with wind tunnel experiments. The shock wave is generated outside the wake and propagates across the turbulent wake. Instantaneous streamwise velocity is measured on the wake centerline while peak overpressure of the shock wave is measured outside the wake after the shock wave has passed across the wake. The experiments are performed for various conditions of the cylinder wake to investigate the influences of the root-mean-squared (rms) velocity fluctuation and of the length of the turbulent region through which the shock wave propagates. The velocity fluctuation opposite to the shock propagation direction is positively correlated with the peak-overpressure fluctuation. The mean peak overpressure decreases after the shock wave propagates in the wake. These relations between velocity and peak overpressure are explained by the shock-surface deformation, where the peak overpressure is increased and decreased, respectively, for the shock surfaces with concave and convex shapes in relation to the shock propagation direction. The correlation coefficients between the velocity and peak-overpressure fluctuations and the rms peak-overpressure fluctuation increase with the rms velocity fluctuation. The rms peak-overpressure fluctuation becomes independent of the turbulent length on the shock ray once the shock wave has propagated through a sufficiently long turbulent region. The peak-overpressure fluctuation has a probability density function (PDF) close to a Gaussian shape even though the PDF of velocity fluctuations in the wake is negatively skewed.