Numerical assessment of correlations for shock wave boundary layer interaction

• CFD investigations of shock wave-boundary layer interactions (SWBLI) are presented.
• Widely admired correlations for shock wave boundary layer interactions are assessed.
• None of the existing correlation for SWBLI possesses hypersonic independence.
• Most of them lag in linearity due to inadequate length scales.
• Revised correlations are proposed which have enhanced prediction ability.

Shock wave boundary layer interaction (SWBLI) is most attended research theme in the high speed flow regime for effective design of various parts of space vehicles. Hence, investigations in this field are invariantly carried out to estimate the extent of upstream influence, length of separation bubble, separation point pressure, plateau pressure and peak heatflux or Stanton number. Therefore, interaction of ramp induced shock and laminar boundary layer has been chosen as the test case for present studies. Literature reported correlations, for prediction of characteristic features of this interaction, are explored herewith using the in-house solver. However, results of present simulations for various freestream and wall conditions portrayed their inabilities to incorporate the variations of influencing parameters while retaining the linearity. In view of this, efforts are extended either to modify these widely appreciated correlations or to suggest a better among the reported ones to improve the estimates. The modifications suggested for prediction of extent of upstream influence, separation bubble size and peak Stanton number are seen to improve the applicability of the existing correlations.