ABSTRACT
This paper deals with the computational study of localized laser energy deposition in three-dimensional supersonic flows. A model for Nd:YAG laser energy deposition in air has been developed to capture the key physical processes including the energy absorption and the resulting fluid dynamics. Energy deposition was found to be effective in reducing the peak surface pressure in flows with Edney Type IV shock-shock interaction, while in flows with intersecting oblique shocks in dual-solution domain, it led to a transition from Mach reflection to regular reflection for certain flow configurations.