Shock-Induced Turbulent Flow in Baffle Systems

Abstract

Experiments are described on shock propagation through 2-D aligned and staggered baffle systems. Flow visualization was provided by shadow and Schlieren photography, recorded by a Cranz-Schardin camera. Also single-frame, infinite-fringe, color interferograms were used. Intuition suggests that this is a rather simple 2-D shock diffraction problem. However, flow visualization reveals that the flow rapidly evolved into a complex 3-D turbulent mixing problem. Mushroom-shaped mixing regions blocked the flow into the next baffle orifice. Thus energy was transferred from the directed kinetic energy (induced by the shock) to rotational energy of turbulent mixing, and then dissipated by molecular effects. These processes dramatically dissipate the strength of the shock wave. The experiments provide an excellent test case that could be used to assess the accuracy of computer code calculations of such problems.