Experimental and numerical investigations of shock wave propagation through a bifurcation

Abstract

The propagation of a planar shock wave through a split channel is both experimentally and numerically studied. Experiments were conducted in a square cross-sectional shock tube having a main channel which splits into two symmetric secondary channels, for three different shock wave Mach numbers ranging from about 1.1 to 1.7. High-speed schlieren visualizations were used along with pressure measurements to analyze the main physical mechanisms that govern shock wave diffraction. It is shown that the flow behind the transmitted shock wave through the bifurcation resulted in a highly two-dimensional unsteady and non-uniform flow accompanied with significant pressure loss. In parallel, numerical simulations based on the solution of the Euler equations with a second-order Godunov scheme confirmed the experimental results with good agreement. Finally, a parametric study was carried out using numerical analysis where the angular displacement of the two channels that define the bifurcation was changed from $$90^{\\circ }$$90∘, $$45^{\\circ }$$45∘, $$20^{\\circ }$$20∘, and $$0^{\\circ }$$0∘. We found that the angular displacement does not significantly affect the overpressure experience in either of the two channels and that the area of the expansion region is the important variable affecting overpressure, the effect being, in the present case, a decrease of almost one half.