Effect of thermal nonequilibrium on the shock interaction mechanism for carbon dioxide mixtures on double-wedge geometries

The effect of thermal nonequilibrium on shock interactions of carbon dioxide (CO2) hypersonic flows is investigated. Given the relatively low characteristic vibrational temperature of the CO2 molecule, it is expected that excited vibrational modes play a significant role in the physics of shock/shock and shock/boundary layer interactions. The shock interference mechanism resulting from a CO2-dominated flow over different double-wedge geometries is investigated by numerically solving the Navier-Stokes equations within the framework of a two-temperature model that considers translational energy-vibrational energy transfer. To assess the impact of vibrational relaxation, a comparative assessment of the patterns obtained with three thermo-physical models is presented, with the two-temperature model flow pattern being compared to thermally perfect and perfect ideal gas ones. Results obtained with the two-temperature model show that increasing the aft angle significantly enlarges the separated region in the compression corner and generates numerous secondary shock waves and shear layers. Peaks of heat flux and pressure occur along the surface due to boundary layer reattachment downstream of the compression corner, except for the case of the higher angle, which results in the largest peaks due to shock impingement. Different assumptions on the excitation of vibrational modes are shown to largely influence the size of the recirculation bubble in the compression corner, shock interaction mechanism, and surface loads. The more energy transferred to the vibrational mode, the lower post-shock temperatures are obtained, which tends to reduce the post-shock density, leading to weaker shock interactions characterized by delayed onsets of separation, reduced separation regions, and smaller standoff distances.