Numerical study of reverse jet for mitigating shock/shock interaction heating

A numerical study is carried out to investigate the mechanism and assess the parameters of a reverse jet in heat reduction of type IV shock/shock interactions. A hypersonic flow at a Mach number of 8 with a fixed 18.1-deg incident shock is considered. A type IV shock/shock interaction occurs in the front of the blunt leading edge. Compressed air is supersonically injected into the freestream at various jet parameters. The results indicate that a 77% decrease in the peak heat transfer rates can be obtained with a reverse jet placed at the centerline of the blunt body. This study corroborates that the primary physical mechanism of heat reduction of a reverse jet is the transformation of shock interaction from type IV to type III. Moreover, the change of jet parameters, including angle, Mach number, and width, produces different heat reduction effects by influencing the angle between the shear layer of type III interference and the wall tangent.