Abstract: | The base pressure pb, for an initial turbulent boundary layer, is determined for supersonic nonisothermal flow about a two-dimensional backward-facing step. This problem has been considered previously. In solving it in 1, 2], use was made of the Korst condition 3], which assumes equality of the total pressure pj
* on the line of constant mass to the pressure behind the closing oblique shock. However the pressure at the reattachment section p* is lower than that behind the closing shock by 30–40% 4], and consequently the Korst condition is inaccurate. Therefore in the references cited only qualitative agreement with experiment was obtained. In contrast with 1, 3], Nash 5] introduces p*; however, it is defined by an empirical coefficient. In the present study, to find pb we make use of the condition of conservation of mass in the base region, written in the form of the equality pj
*=p*, where p* is defined from the assumption of minimum thickness of the dissipative layer at the reattachment section.Satisfactory agreement with the available experimental data is obtained without the use of correction factors. In the simplest case, when the thickness of the oncoming boundary layer 1=0, the proposed method is no more complex than that of Korst. The determination of the base pressure with 1=0 is considered in §1, and the determination with 1>0 is considered in §2. |