The turbulent boundary layer along a compression ramp with a deflection angle of 18° at a free-stream Mach number of M = 3 and a Reynolds number of Reθ = 1685 with respect to free-stream quantities and mean momentum thickness at inflow is studied by direct numerical simulation. The conservation equations for mass, momentum, and energy are solved in generalized coordinates using a 5th-order hybrid compact- finite-difference-ENO scheme for the spatial discretization of the convective fluxes and 6th-order central compact finite differences for the diffusive fluxes. For time advancement a 3rd-order Runge–Kutta scheme is used. The computational domain is discretized with about 15 × 106 grid points. Turbulent inflow data are provided by a separate zero-pressure-gradient boundary-layer simulation. For statistical analysis, the flow is sampled 600 times over about 385 characteristic timescales δ0/U∞, defined by the mean boundary-layer thickness at inflow and the free-stream velocity. Diagnostics show that the numerical representation of the flow field is sufficiently well resolved.

Near the corner, a small area of separated flow develops. The shock motion is limited to less than about 10% of the mean boundary-layer thickness. The shock oscillates slightly around its mean location with a frequency of similar magnitude to the bursting frequency of the incoming boundary layer. Turbulent fluctuations are significantly amplified owing to the shock–boundary-layer interaction. Reynolds-stress maxima are amplified by a factor of about 4. Turbulent normal and shear stresses are amplified differently, resulting in a change of the structure parameter. Compressibility affects the turbulence structure in the interaction area around the corner and during the relaxation after reattachment downstream of the corner. Correlations involving pressure fluctuations are significantly enhanced in these regions. The strong Reynolds analogy which suggests a perfect correlation between velocity and temperature fluctuations is found to be invalid in the interaction area.