Aerodynamics of two interfering simple-shape bodies in hypersonic rarefied-gas flows

Hypersonic rarefied-gas flows near two side-by-side plates and cylinders, a plate and cylinder over a plane surface, and a plate behind a cylinder in argon and nitrogen have been studied numerically using the direct simulation Monte-Carlo technique under the transition rarefied-gas-flow regime conditions at Knudsen numbers from 0.004 to 10. Strong influences of the geometrical factor (the ratio of a distance between bodies to a body length) and the Knudsen number on the flow structure about the bodies (the shape of shock waves, the configuration of subsonic flow zones) and on skin friction, pressure distribution, lift and drag have been found.