Double peak-heating in hypersonic transitional shock-wave/boundary-layer interactions

Estimating heat-flux peak location and magnitude is important to efficiently design thermal protection systems of hypersonic vehicles, which are characterized by strict low-weight requirements. This work is a numerical study of hypersonic shock-wave/boundary-layer interaction experiments on flat plates and compression corners. In all the cases presented herein, shock-induced transition resulted in unusual heat-flux levels and distributions. Fully laminar and Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes simulations failed in predicting the heat-flux trends; however, by artificially triggering transition at specific location it was possible to enhance the agreement with the experiment and isolate the beginning of transition with reasonable precision.