Interactions of a plasma and an incoming flow at Mach 3

A mechanical spike is a device used to mechanically act on the bow shock ahead of an airplane in supersonic flight. This action results in improved flight conditions. We will investigate here the eects of the axial generation of a two-hundred-micrometer width cylindrical plasma ahead a quasi-realistic nose profile of centimeter width. The device is named plasma spike by analogy to the above-cited mechanical device. This plasma spike is a source of both momentum and energy for the neighboring fluid.