Reconstruction of the structural characteristic of the refractive index and average air density in a shock wave arising in a supersonic flow past obstacles from optical measurements

Abstract

Average and fluctuation parameters of a shock wave that arises in a supersonic air flow around bodies are studied based on numerical simulation using FLUENT 6.0 models of computational fluid dynamics. A series of closed numerical experiments show that distributions of the structural characteristic of the refractive index and average air density in the region of shock wave localization can be reconstructed from measurements of parameters of the laser beam intersecting the flow.