Influence of expansion corner on the interaction of dual separation zones

The complex shock waves/boundary layer interaction is an important problem in inlets, which induces the interaction of multiple separation zones and has attracted experts’ attention gradually. In this paper, based on a two-dimensional hypersonic inlet model, a numerical method is used to study the influence characteristics of the expansion corner on dual separation zones’ interaction. The shock wave distance is changed to realize the fusion of dual separation zones and the re-separation of the fused separation zone. Analyses are carried out by setting different corner angles of 0°, 2°, 5°, and 10°. The results show that with the increase in the corner angle, the maximum separation scale achieved by the fusion process gradually decreases and the flow field structures of the fusion and re-separation processes tend to be consistent in the same shock wave distance. Furthermore, given the inflow parameters, the scale change and the “hysteresis effect” of the interaction between different separation zones are weakened by the corner influence.