The Effect of Water Droplets on the Relaxation Zone Developed Behind Strong Normal Shock Waves

The propagation of strong normal shock waves into quiescent argon gas seeded with water droplet is studied. For evaluating the effect of the water droplets on the post shock-wave flow field, i.e., the relaxation zone, the conservation equations appropriate to a steady, one-dimensional suspension flow are formulated and solved numerically. The solution, carried out for a range of shock Mach numbers 13 ≤ M ≤ 17 and a few different values for the water droplet concentration, indicates that the presence of the water droplets has a significant effect on the extent of the relaxation zone and on the values obtained for the flow properties throughout this zone.