Experimental study of the interaction of shock waves with the contact boundary and zone of turbulent mixing of different gases

Abstract

The interaction of a shock wave with turbulent flow was experimentally investigated. The case where a shock wave formed at one end of the tube, passed through the interface between two quiescent gases with different densities (air–CO2 or air–Ar), was reflected from the end of the tube, and interacted with the zone of turbulent mixing formed at the interface. The Mach number of the shock wave incident on the interface in air was M ≈ 2.37–2.57. The flow field was recorded using the schlieren method and high-speed video recording. It was found that after passing the mixing zone, the shock-wave front was deformed and became unstable.