Separation Length Scaling in Hypervelocity Double Cone Air Flows

A hallmark problem in the study of shockwave/boundary-layer interactions (SBLI) is the flow over a double cone. The system of conical shocks interact with a developing boundary layer to produce a region of flow separation. Due to the presence of real gas effects (defined here to mean any deviations from perfect gas behavior resulting from thermal transitions and chemical reactions), air simulations routinely fail to match experimental data at flow enthalpies greater than 6 MJ/kg [1]. The double cone flow has been identified as an exceptionally suitable model problem due to the sensitivity of the separation zone size and heat transfer rates to real gas effects [2]. Numerous researchers have investigated these flow fields both experimentally and computationally [3, 4, 5, 6, 7]. Many studies focus on the pressure and heat transfer distributions, in an effort to verify chemical and thermal models. The development of the shock system and separation zone has been investigated with varying configurations for both double cones [8] and double wedges [9]