The interaction of oblique shocks and oblique compression waves with a laminar boundary layer on an adiabatic flat plate is analyzed by solving the Navier-Stokes equations in conservation-law form numerically. The numerical scheme is based on the Beam and Warming’s implicit method with approximate factorization. We examine the flow of Bethe-Zel’dovich-Thompson (BZT) fluids at pressures and temperatures on the order of those of the thermodynamic critical point. A BZT fluid is a single-phase gas having specific heat so large that the fundamental derivative of gas dynamics, Γ, is negative over a finite range of pressures and temperatures. The equation of state is the well-known Martin-Hou equation. The main result is the demonstration that the natural dynamics of BZT fluids can suppress boundary layer separation. Physically, this suppression can be attributed to the decrease in adverse pressure gradients associated with the disintegration of compression discontinuities in BZT fluids. / Ph. D.