Abstract: Compressible Navier–Stokes equations are solved using a fifth-order upwind scheme in the AUSM+ framework to visualize a compressible vortex ring generated from a shock tube. The ring impinges on a wall kept near the open end of the tube. The vortex ring has an embedded shock, counter rotating vortex rings ahead of it and a number of small-scale shear layer vortices trailing behind. When this complex configuration impinges on a wall, wall vorticity is lifted and begins to interact with the complex system of vortices. The paper focusses on the features of the resulting flow field by visualizing them on increasingly finer grids. It is shown that though the different grids capture a fairly matching description of the initial turbulent vortex system that propagates towards the wall, small differences existing between them magnify with time. During vortex–wall interaction, some key experimentally observed features are identified on all the grids, but the details of the vortical structure look significantly different on different grids. Graphical Abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.] © 2016, The Visualization Society of Japan.