The aims of this book are to bring together the most recent results on the behavior
of turbulent boundary layers at supersonic speed and to present some
conclusions regarding our present understanding of these flows. By doing so,
we hope to give the reader a general introduction to the field, whether they be
students or practicing research engineers and scientists, and to help provide a
basis for future work in this area. Most textbooks on turbulence or boundary
layers contain some background on turbulent boundary layers in supersonic
flow, but the information is usually rather cursory, or it is out of date. Only
one, by Kutateladze and Leont’ev (1964), addresses the specific issue of turbulent
boundary layers in compressible gases, but it focuses largely on solutions
of the integral equations of motion, and it is not much concerned with the turbulence
itself. Some aspects of turbulence are addressed by Cousteix (1989),
but only one chapter is devoted to this topic, and his review, although very
useful, is not exhaustive. The scope of the present book is considerably wider
in that we are concerned with physical descriptions of turbulent shear-layer
behavior, and the response of the mean flow and turbulence to a wide variety
of perturbations. For example, in addition to turbulent mixing layers, we will
consider boundary layers on flat plates, with and without pressure gradient,
on curved walls, and the interaction of boundary layers with shock waves, in
two and three dimensions.