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The effects of energy deposition in the free stream on steady regular and Mach shock wave reflections are studied numerically. A short-duration laser pulse is focused upstream of the incident shock waves. It causes formation of the expanding blast wave and the residual hot-spot interacting in a complex way with the steady shock wave reflection. It was found that the laser energy addition in the free stream may force the transition from regular to Mach reflection in the dual solution domain. In contrast to previously reported numerical results, the transition from Mach to regular reflection has not been reproduced in our refined computations since the Mach reflection is restored after the flow perturbation.

The theoretical study and experimental investigation of the reflection of asymmetric shock waves in steady flows reported by Li et al. (1999) are complemented by a numerical simulation. All the findings reported in both the theoretical study and the experimental investigation were also evident in the numerical simulation. In addition to weak regular reflection and Mach reflection wave configurations, strong regular reflection and inverse-Mach reflection wave configurations were recorded numerically. The hysteresis phenomenon, which was hypothesized in the course of the theoretical study and then verified in the experimental investigation, was also observed in the numerical simulation.