An experimental study has been conducted in a Mach 3 wind tunnel to in
vestigate the behavior of supersonic vortices as they interact with a
wedge surface placed in their passage. The experimental setup was arra
nged so that interactions resulted in a close encounter of the vortex
core and the wedge leading edge. Spark shadow photographs of the flowf
ield along with pressure measurements on the wedge surface were used t
o study the interaction problem. Is their most organized form, distort
ion of streamwise vortices upon interacting with the wedge was found t
o result in formation of symmetric detached shock fronts far upstream
of the wedge leading edge followed by an apparent slip surface separat
ing a subsonic region from a supersonic zone. Interaction experiments
leading to substantial changes in the structure of vortices revealed t
hat the supersonic vortex distortion has strong resemblances to the in
compressible ''B-breakdown'' reported in the literature. Experimental
results also indicate that the interaction strongly depends on the vor
tex strength and vortex proximity to the wedge leading edge, and the g
enerated flowfield was found to be highly unsteady. Interaction of con
centrated streamwise vortices with the oblique shock formed over the w
edge surface resulted in formation of a locally three-dimensional shoc
k wave with a limited subsonic region downstream of the shock.