The Effect of Three-Dimensional Freestream Disturbances on the Supersonic Flow Past a Wedge

The interaction between a shock wave (attached to a wedge) and small amplitude, three-dimensional disturbances of a uniform, supersonic, freestream flow are investigated. The paper extends the two-dimensional study of Duck et al. [P W. Duck, D. G. Lasseigne, and M. Y. Hussaini, \u27\u27On the interaction between the shock wave attached to a wedge and freestream disturbances,\u27\u27 Theor. Comput. Fluid Dyn. 7, 119 (1995) (also ICASE Report No. 93-61)] through the use of vector potentials, which render the problem tractable by the same techniques as in the two-dimensional case, in particular by expansion of the solution by means of a Fourier-Bessel series, in appropriately chosen coordinates. Results are presented for specific classes of freestream disturbances, and the study shows conclusively that the shock is stable to all classes of disturbances (i.e., time periodic perturbations to the shock do not grow downstream), provided the flow downstream of the shock is supersonic (loosely corresponding to the weak shock solution). This is shown from our numerical results and also by asymptotic analysis of the Fourier-Bessel series, valid far downstream of the shock. (C) 1997 American Institute of Physics