Upstream influence and peak heating in hypervelocity shock wave/boundary-layer interaction

Two important characteristics of separated flow, namely, the scale of interaction and the peak heat transfer, have been examined under high-enthalpy, hypersonic conditions. Experimental data have been obtained in a free-piston shock tunnel using a compression corner model. The data are examined in terms of established perfect gas theories, and are seen to be in seasonable agreement with these theories and also with data from perfect gas experiments. This indicates that, for the present conditions, the real gas effects on separation and reattachment are small.