Investigation on wedge shock wave control by surface MHD actuation

Abstract

To study the effect of magnetohydrodynamic actuation on wedge shock waves under hypersonic flow, experiments were conducted in a Mach 7 hypersonic shock tunnel. A schlieren method was used to visualize the shock waves and the flow, which showed that the shock waves raised and moved forward under 0.37 T. The experimental results were analyzed in detail by numerical simulation. A theoretical model was designed to investigate the effect of Joule heat and the Lorentz force. The load factor (K) was defined to show the dominant factor, and the results of the calculation showed that Joule heat was the dominant factor in this experiment. From further analysis, we conclude that increasing the magnetic field intensity, improving the gas conductivity, arranging the actuation near the wedge head, and increasing the width of the actuation region properly may be helpful in achieving a better control effect.