A Verification Method for Simulations of Oblique Shock Reflections

LA-UR-25-20612

Oblique shock reflections occur in a variety of instances where a supersonic flow is concavely deflected by a contact surface. These reflections can vary drastically in complexity depending on the initial Mach number of the planar shock, the number of facets on the contact surface, and their corresponding angles. This type of configuration is commonly found in a variety of engineering applications and shock experiments. Due to the widespread use of computational fluid dynamics, understanding the level of confidence associated with numerical simulations is essential.

Ideally, analytical solutions could be used to draw conclusions about how well a simulation produces an expected behavior, but for this type of shock phenomenon, limited analytical solutions exist. Thus, it is necessary to explore and develop novel verification techniques. This study proposes and demonstrates the utility of using the method of characteristics to obtain semi-analytical solutions for oblique shock reflections over single-faceted wedges, double-faceted wedges, and a curved surface. These semi-analytical solutions can then be used as a verification tool to draw quantitative comparisons against the numerical simulation output to evaluate the level of confidence associated with these simulations, as well as others which build on these simulations.