Irregular Phenomena of Shock Reflection Transition in a Conventional Supersonic Wind Tunnel

Experimental studies on shock wave reflection in steady flow have been made in a conventional blowdown-type supersonic wind tunnel. The transition from regular to Mach reflection occurs significantly above the von Neumann condition and below the detachment condition, but the repeatability of the transition angle is not satisfactorily achieved. It is shown that the type of disturbance in the freestream is very important to the transition phenomena.