Stability and analogy of shock wave reflection in steady flow

Numerical simulations have been performed to investigate the stability of shock wave reflection in supersonic steady flow. Wall deflection control has been applied just downstream of the reflection point in the regular reflection configuration. The results provide the magnitude of the disturbance required to cause transition from one configuration to the other throughout the range of incident shock angle. An argument focusing on the subsonic region generated behind the Mach stem in the Mach reflection configuration explains the mechanism of the transition. Numerical results show that both regular and Mach reflections are possible in the dual-solution domain, and also indicate the presence of the hysteresis effect. The transition processes and the stability of the possible states are shown to be described consistently by an analogy based on the potential energy of a particle on a surface. The necessity of more sophisticated experimental investigations is emphasized to verify the argument about the stability of shock reflections and proposed analogy. Received 17 March 1997 / Accepted 26 February 1998