Investigations of three-dimensional shock/shock interactions over symmetrical intersecting wedges

This study explored inviscid supersonic corner flows induced by three-dimensional symmetrical intersecting compression wedges by introducing the spatial dimension reduction theoretical approach to transform the threedimensional steady shock/shock interaction problem into a two-dimensional pseudosteady problem; this method allows not only wave configurations, which include regular reflection and Mach reflection, to be determined accurately, but also flowfield characteristics, which include density, temperature, pressure, and total pressure recovery coefficient near the regular reflection point (or in the vicinity of the Mach reflection triple point), as well as the location and the strength of the Mach stem. Theoretical results were compared to numerical simulation (performed by solving three-dimensional inviscid Euler equations with an non-oscillatory and non-free-parameters dissipative finite difference scheme) and analyzed thoroughly. The effects of inflow Mach number, sweep angle, and wedge angle on flowfield parameters and wave configurations were also considered. The influence of sweep angle is negligible, but the effects of Mach number and wedge angle are significant.