Investigation of the hysteresis phenomena in steady shock reflection using kinetic and continuum methods

The problem of transition of planar shock waves over straight wedges in steady flows from regular to Mach reflection and back was numerically studied by the DSMC method for solving the Boltzmann equation and finite difference method with FCT algorithm for solving the Euler equations. It is shown that the transition from regular to Mach reflection takes place in accordance with detachment criterion while the opposite transition occurs at smaller angles. The hysteresis effect was observed at increasing and decreasing shock wave angle.