Behavior of shock waves formed in supersonic jet impinging on flat plate

Abstract

This paper focuses on the behavior of shock waves formed in an underexpanded impinging jet. The jet becomes underexpanded when the pressure ratio exceeds the critical value across the convergent nozzle discharging it. When a flat plate is placed perpendicularly to the jet, the strong shock wave called ‘plate shock' appears in the flow field near the plate. The underexpanded jet discharged from a nozzle into the atmosphere is often used for industrial applications, e.g., an assist gas of laser cutting and a cooling jet in glass tempering process. The jet impinges on the work piece and spreads out on its surface. So this study concentrates on the relation between the jet oscillation and the location of the work piece and especially discusses behavior of shock formed in jet. The impinging jet was formed under conditions of different nozzle pressure ratios and nozzle-plate spacings and was visualized using the shadowgraph and schlieren methods. The instantaneous shape of jet was measured through analyzing the pictures taken at random under each condition and the oscillation pattern was examined. In addition, under the same conditions, a numerical study was carried out using TVD scheme. As a result, it was found that the oscillation pattern of plate shock depends on its location and the nozzle pressure ratio.