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At least 469 records · Page 26

Three-dimensional hypersonic rarefied flow calculations using direct simulation Monte Carlo method

A summary of three-dimensional simulations on the hypersonic rarefied flows in an effort to understand the highly nonequilibrium flows about space vehicles entering the Earth's atmosphere for a realistic estimation of the aerothermal loads is presented. Calculations are performed using the direct simulation Monte Carlo method with a five-species reacting gas model, which accounts for rotational and vibrational internal energies. Results are obtained for the external flows about various bodies in the transitional flow regime. For the cases considered, convective heating, flowfield structure and overall aerodynamic coefficients are presented and comparisons are made with the available experimental data. The agreement between the calculated and measured results are very good.

Celenligil, M. Cevdet↗

The Prospects for Laminar Flow on Hypersonic Airplanes

The factors which affect the extent of laminar flow on airplanes for hypersonic flight are discussed on the basis of the available data. Factors considered include flight Reynolds number, surface roughness, angle of attack, angle of leading-edge sweepback, and aerodynamic interference. Test data are presented for one complete configuration.

MACH NUMBER EFFECTS - COMPLETE WINGS↗

Hypersonic rarefied flow past spheres including wake structure

Results of a numerical study using the direct simulation Monte Carlo method are presented for hypersonic rarefied flow past spheres. The flow conditions considered are those corresponding to low density wind tunnel test conditions. The set of the experimental conditions for the calculations encompasses the transitional to near-continuum flow regimes. Comparison of the calculated drag with experimental results shows good agreement to well within the experimental error. Particular attention is focused on the wake structure. Calculations show that the wake is very rarefied with considerable thermal nonequilibrium for all the cases considered. No flow separation is observed in the wake for the near-continuum case where a vortex has been predicted by Navier-Stokes type calculations.

Dogra, Virendra K.↗

Toward a CFD nose-to-tail capability - Hypersonic unsteady Navier-Stokes code validation

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) research for hypersonic flows presents new problems in code validation because of the added complexity of the physical models. This paper surveys code validation procedures applicable to hypersonic flow models that include real gas effects. The current status of hypersonic CFD flow analysis is assessed with the Compressible Navier-Stokes (CNS) code as a case study. The methods of code validation discussed to beyond comparison with experimental data to include comparisons with other codes and formulations, component analyses, and estimation of numerical errors. Current results indicate that predicting hypersonic flows of perfect gases and equilibrium air are well in hand. Pressure, shock location, and integrated quantities are relatively easy to predict accurately, while surface quantities such as heat transfer are more sensitive to the solution procedure. Modeling transition to turbulence needs refinement, though preliminary results are promising.

Edwards, Thomas A.↗

Numerical simulation of hypersonic inlet flows with equilibrium or finite rate chemistry

An efficient numerical program incorporated with comprehensive high temperature gas property models has been developed to simulate hypersonic inlet flows. The computer program employs an implicit lower-upper time marching scheme to solve the two-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations with variable thermodynamic and transport properties. Both finite-rate and local-equilibrium approaches are adopted in the chemical reaction model for dissociation and ionization of the inlet air. In the finite rate approach, eleven species equations coupled with fluid dynamic equations are solved simultaneously. In the local-equilibrium approach, instead of solving species equations, an efficient chemical equilibrium package has been developed and incorporated into the flow code to obtain chemical compositions directly. Gas properties for the reaction products species are calculated by methods of statistical mechanics and fit to a polynomial form for C(p). In the present study, since the chemical reaction time is comparable to the flow residence time, the local-equilibrium model underpredicts the temperature in the shock layer. Significant differences of predicted chemical compositions in shock layer between finite rate and local-equilibrium approaches have been observed.

Yu, Sheng-Tao↗

Hypersonic Separated Flows About "Tick" Configurations With Sensitivity to Model Design

This paper presents computational results obtained by applying the direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method for hypersonic nonequilibrium flow about "tick-shaped" model configurations. These test models produces a complex flow where the nonequilibrium and rarefied aspects of the flow are initially enhanced as the flow passes over an expansion surface, and then the flow encounters a compression surface that can induce flow separation. The resulting flow is such that meaningful numerical simulations must have the capability to account for a significant range of rarefaction effects; hence the application of the DSMC method in the current study as the flow spans several flow regimes, including transitional, slip, and continuum. The current focus is to examine the sensitivity of both the model surface response (heating, friction and pressure) and flowfield structure to assumptions regarding surface boundary conditions and more extensively the impact of model design as influenced by leading edge configuration as well as the geometrical features of the expansion and compression surfaces. Numerical results indicate a strong sensitivity to both the extent of the leading edge sharpness and the magnitude of the leading edge bevel angle. Also, the length of the expansion surface for a fixed compression surface has a significant impact on the extent of separated flow.

Moss, J. N.↗

Application of a parallel DSMC method to hypersonic rarefied flows

This paper describes a method for doing direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) calculations using parallel processing and presents some results of applying the method to several hypersonic, rarefied flow problems. The performance and efficiency of the parallel method are discussed. The applications described are the flow in a channel and the flow about a flat plate at incidence. The results show significant advantages of parallel processing over conventional scalar processing and demonstrate the scalability of the method to large problems.

Wilmoth, Richard G.↗

Numerical simulation of supersonic and hypersonic inlet flow fields

This report summarizes the research performed by North Carolina State University and NASA Ames Research Center under Cooperative Agreement NCA2-719, 'Numerical Simulation of Supersonic and Hypersonic Inlet Flow Fields". Four distinct rotated upwind schemes were developed and investigated to determine accuracy and practicality. The scheme found to have the best combination of attributes, including reduction to grid alignment with no rotation, was the cell centered non-orthogonal (CCNO) scheme. In 2D, the CCNO scheme improved rotation when flux interpolation was extended to second order. In 3D, improvements were less dramatic in all cases, with second order flux interpolation showing the least improvement over grid aligned upwinding. The reduction in improvement is attributed to uncertainty in determining optimum rotation angle and difficulty in performing accurate and efficient interpolation of the angle in 3D. The CCNO rotational technique will prove very useful for increasing accuracy when second order interpolation is not appropriate and will materially improve inlet flow solutions.

Mcrae, D. Scott↗

Preconditioned conjugate gradient methods for the Navier-Stokes equations

A preconditioned Krylov subspace method (GMRES) is used to solve the linear systems of equations formed at each time-integration step of the unsteady, two-dimensional, compressible Navier-Stokes equations of fluid flow. The Navier-Stokes equations are cast in an implicit, upwind finite-volume, flux-split formulation. Several preconditioning techniques are investigated to enhance the efficiency and convergence rate of the implicit solver based on the GMRES algorithm. The superiority of the new solver is established by comparisons with a conventional implicit solver, namely line Gauss-Seidel relaxation (LGSR). Computational test results for low-speed (incompressible flow over a backward-facing step at Mach 0.1), transonic flow (trailing edge flow in a transonic turbine cascade), and hypersonic flow (shock-on-shock interactions on a cylindrical leading edge at Mach 6.0) are presented. For the Mach 0.1 case, overall speedup factors of up to 17 (in terms of time-steps) and 15 (in terms of CPU time on a CRAY-YMP/8) are found in favor of the preconditioned GMRES solver, when compared with the LGSR solver. The corresponding speedup factors for the transonic flow case are 17 and 23, respectively. The hypersonic flow case shows slightly lower speedup factors of 9 and 13, respectively. The study of preconditioners conducted in this research reveals that a new LUSGS-type preconditioner is much more efficient than a conventional incomplete LU-type preconditioner.

Ajmani, Kumud↗

Numerical solutions of supersonic and hypersonic laminar flows over a two-dimensional compression corner

An efficient time-splitting, second-order accurate, numerical scheme is used to solve the complete Navier-Stokes equations for supersonic and hypersonic laminar flow over a two-dimensional compression corner. A fine, exponentially stretched mesh spacing is used in the region near the wall for resolving the viscous layer. Good agreement is obtained between the present computed results and experimental measurement for a Mach number of 14.1, a Reynolds number of 104,000, and wedge angles of 15, 18, and 24 deg. The details of the pressure variation across the boundary layer are given, and a correlation between the leading edge shock and the peaks in surface pressure and heat transfer is observed.

Hung, C. M.↗

Numerical procedure for three-dimensional hypersonic viscous flow over aerobrake configuration

A numerical method, which is simpler and more efficient than others currently in use, is proposed for the computation of the full viscous flow over an aerobrake body in hypersonic stream at high altitude. It treats the shock layer surrounding the blunt forebody and the near wake behind the base simultaneously by formulating the Navier-Stokes equations in conformal and azimuthal-angle coordinates. The computational domain is confined by the body wall, outflow surface and the shock, which is adjusted along the coordinate normal to the wall in the course of iterations. Because of the optimal grid and a well developed alternating direction implicit factorization technique for the governing equations, reasonably accurate results can be obtained with a 28 x 36 x 7 grid and 400 time-marching iterations. Excellent agreement of shock location is found between the present result and the schlieren photograph. Details of the base flow and shear layer impingement on the cylindrical aft body are presented for an adiabatic wall case.

Li, C. P.↗

Computational methods for hypersonic viscous flow over finite ellipsoid-cones at incidence

A numerical method, which is simpler than others currently in use, is proposed for determining the full viscous flow over a finite body in hypersonic stream at high altitude. It treats the shock layer surrounding the blunt foebody and the near wake behind the base simultaneously by formulating the Navier-Stokes equations in conformal and azimuthal-angle coordinates. The computational domain is confined to the body wall, outflow surface and the bow shock, which is adjusted along the coordinate normal to the wall in the course of iterations. Because of the optimal grid and a well developed alternating direction implicit factorization technique for the governing equations, reasonably accurate results can be obtained on a 30 by 36 by 6 grid with 400 time-marching iterations. Results for body shapes belonging to the ellipsoid-cone family are compared with the experimental data for the Apollo command module and the Viking aeroshell. Validation of the method based on self-consistency is also discussed.

Li, C. P.↗

Analysis of hypersonic arcjet flow fields and surface heating of blunt bodies

A Gauss-Seidel implicit aerothermodynamic Navier-Stokes computational CFD code with thermochemical surface conditions (GIANTS) and with appropriate boundary conditions was developed for the analysis of hypersonic arcjet flows over large angle blunt bodies. Two-dimensional axisymmetric multicomponent full Navier-Stokes equations were solved, together with boundary conditions, to account for the surface slip, surface catalysis, and energy and mass conservation at the body surface. It is shown that the predictions for isothermal, noncatalytic, and no-slip surface conditions which are made using the GIANTS code with simple boundary conditions agree with those of the LAURA code, and the predicted normalized heating distributions over the forebody surface with boundary conditions for various cone angles are consistent with the trends of data from arcjet experiments.

Chen, Y.-K.↗

The application of laser Rayleigh scattering to gas density measurements in hypersonic helium flows

Measurements of the mean static free-stream gas density have been made in two Langley Research Center helium facilities, the 3-inch leg of the high-Reynolds-number helium complex and the 22-inch hypersonic helium tunnel. Rayleigh scattering of a CW argon ion laser beam at 514.5 nm provided the basic physical mechanism. The behavior of the scattered signal was linear, confirmed by a preliminary laboratory study. That study also revealed the need to introduce baffles to reduce stray light. A relatively simple optical system and associated photon-counting electronics were utilized to obtain data for densities from 10 to the 23rd to 10 to the 25th per cu m. The major purpose, to confirm the applicability of this technique in the hypersonic helium flow, was accomplished.

Hoppe, J. C.↗