Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters in the first part of this book. The part of the book is concerned with studies respectively based on the thin viscous shock layer (TVSL) model, the full shock layer model, and the PNS equations – three basic hydrodynamic approaches are widely popular with the aerodynamic research community because of their correct asymptotic behavior and earlier numerical integrity, compared to the full system of Navier-Stokes (NS) equations. It surveys, the applications of this approach to hypersonic viscous flows over the sphere, blunted small half-angle cones, and similar configurations for which the shock layer may not be considered thin over the entire length of the body. The part presents the results obtained via the parabolized Navier-Stokes (PNS) equations.