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The interaction between a planar shock wave propagating in air and a polygonal bubble (composed of two triangles) containing two different gases is studied numerically. Studying the interaction between an oncoming shock wave with front- and rear-facing triangles containing light and heavy gases is of great importance in understanding the complex shock wave propagation, interaction and hydrodynamic instabilities as well as their effect on mitigating or enhancing the colliding shock/blast wave. Two different cases were studied: in the first case, the front triangle contained sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) and the rear one contained helium (He); while in the second case, He is in the front and SF6 in the rear triangle. As the speed of sound in He is significantly higher than that in SF6 and in air, different flow fields were evolved. When SF6 is placed in the front triangle, the shock wave transmitted through the SF6 is reflected back from the interface separating the two gases and starts propagating downstream; over the He segment of the bubble, the incident shock wave (in the open air) is already seen over the He section and it submits compression waves into the He gas. These compression waves travel upstream and downstream; in their upstream movement they generate compression waves into the ambient air ahead of the incident shock wave. The part moving downstream will hit the interface separating SF6 and He, resulting in a complex wave pattern. A completely different wave pattern is visible when He is placed in the front triangle. Now the fastest shock is the transmitted shock wave in the He section; it reaches the membrane separating the two gases well before the incident shock wave reaches this location. Unlike the previous case, now the resulting flow in the rear triangle of the bubble is affected not only by the incident shock wave but also by the transmitted compression waves from the helium section. Furthermore, when helium is placed in the front section of the bubble, the compression waves in the He impacts the rear triangle of the bubble (containing SF6) almost like a planar shock wave. This is different from the previous case where SF6 was in the front section; then the shock wave impacting on the rear bubble containing He had a completely different shape due to its propagation into the SF6 bubble. This resulted in completely different peak pressures.

The complex flow and wave pattern following an initially planar shock wave transmitted through a double-bend duct is studied experimentally and theoretically/numerically. Several different double-bend duct geometries are investigated in order to assess their effects on the accompanying flow and shock wave attenuation while passing through these ducts. The effect of the duct wall roughness on the shock wave attenuation is also studied. The main flow diagnostic used in the experimental part is either an interferometric study or alternating shadow–schlieren diagnostics. The photos obtained provide a detailed description of the flow evolution inside the ducts investigated. Pressure measurements were also taken in some of the experiments. In the theoretical/numerical part the conservation equations for an inviscid, perfect gas were solved numerically. It is shown that the proposed physical model (Euler equations), which is solved by using the second-order-accurate, high-resolution GRP (generalized Riemann problem) scheme, can simulate such a complex, time-dependent process very accurately. Specifically, all wave patterns are numerically simulated throughout the entire interaction process. Excellent agreement is found between the numerical simulation and the experimental results. The efficiency of a double-bend duct in providing a shock wave attenuation is clearly demonstrated.

The interaction of a planar shock wave with a square cavity is studied experimentally and numerically. It is shown that such a complex, time-dependent, process can be modelled in a relatively simple manner. The proposed physical model is the Euler equations which are solved numerically, using the second-order-accurate high-resolution GRP scheme, resulting in very good agreement with experimentally obtained findings. Specifically, the wave pattern is numerically simulated throughout the entire interaction process. Excellent agreement is found between the experimentally obtained shadowgraphs and numerical simulations of the various flow discontinuities inside and around the cavity at all times. As could be expected, it is confirmed that the highest pressure acts on the cavity wall which experiences a head-on collision with the incident shock wave while the lowest pressures are encountered on the wall along which the incident shock wave diffracts. The proposed physical model and the numerical simulation used in the present work can be employed in solving shock wave interactions with other complex boundaries.

The interaction of a rarefaction wave with a gradual monotonic area reduction of finite length in a duct, which produces transmitted and reflected rarefaction waves and other possible rarefaction and shock waves, was studied both analytically and numerically. A quasi-steady flow analysis which is analytical for an inviscid flow of a perfect gas was used first to determine the domains of and boundaries between four different wave patterns that occur at late times, after all local transient disturbances from the interaction process have subsided. These boundaries and the final constant strengths of the transmitted, reflected and other waves are shown as a function of both the incident rarefaction-wave strength and area-reduction ratio, for the case of diatomic gases and air with a specific-heat ratio of 7/5. The random-choice method was then used to solve numerically the conservation equations governing the one-dimensional non-stationary gas flow for many different combinations of rarefaction-wave strengths and area-reduction ratios. These numerical results show clearly how the transmitted, reflected and other waves develop and evolve with time, until they eventually attain constant strengths, in agreement with quasi-steady flow predictions for the asymptotic wave patterns. Note that in all of this work the gas in the area reduction is initially at rest.

The effect of surface roughness on the transition form regualr (RR) to Mach reflection (MR) over straight wedges in pseudo-steady flows was investigated both experimentally and analytically. A model for predicting the RR \rightleftarrows MR transition is related to the boundary - layer thickness which in turn depneds on the surface roughness.