An Approximate Study on the Detached Shock Wave in front of a Circular Cylinder and a Sphere

Abstract

In this paper is given an approximate analysis for the detached shock wave in front of a circular cylinder and a sphere moving with supersonic speed. Assuming the flow behind the detached shock wave to be similar to the rotational flow of an incompressible fluid, we can determine various quantities relating to the shock in such a way that the shock conditions may be satisfied in the neighbourhood of the nose of the shock wave. It is found that the vorticity correction does not alter the non-dimensional curvature of the shock at the nose but makes its location further away from the body than in the case without vorticity. Our theoretical result is compared with some experiments and a fairly good agreement is found between them.