A unified analysis of supersonic nonequilibrium flow over a wedge. i - vibrational nonequilibrium

The paper begins with a survey and discussion of the existing analytical work on the problem of supersonic nonequilibrium flow over a wedge and certain related topics A new approach is formulated which provides a more complete picture of the flow field and retains greater generality The uniform freestream may be either in equilibrium or frozen in some out-of-equilibrium state The exact problem is simplified by assuming that the unknown quantities deviate only slightly from their frozen-flow values The resulting differential equations and boundary conditions are solved The physical situations in which this solution is a good first approximation are listed and explained In some of these situations, the solution can be furthei simplified to give an explicit picture of the flow field The simplified solution shows the existence of a relaxation region behind the shock wave and an entropy layer next to the wedge surface, in addition to the classical incoming and outgoing waves along which disturbances aie propagated A numerical example, treated by using the simplified solution, is found to be in good qualitative agreement with existing numerical solution of the exact problem using the method of characteristics Causes of quantitative discrepancy are discussed, and possible improvements are suggested