Shock wave (white sheets) impinging upon a turbulent boundary layer, with eddies colored by the streamwise velocity (shades of blue). This project investigates how the shock/boundary-layer interaction is modified when the incoming boundary layer is skewed relative to the shock, which is relevant to realistic 3D geometries like swept wings.
Credit: Johan Larsson, University of Maryland.
This INCITE project is aimed at uncovering flow physics, producing validation data for lower-fidelity simulation approaches, and supporting the development of improved predictive theory.
This INCITE project is focused on supersonic turbulent boundary layers and their interaction with shock waves. The project is aimed at uncovering flow physics, producing validation data for lower-fidelity simulation approaches, and supporting the development of improved predictive theory. The project is specifically focused on how high-speed turbulent boundary layers and shock/boundary-layer interactions (SBLI) are affected by additional factors including non-adiabatic and non-rigid walls as well as the presence of cross flow. The project makes use of two different codes that both solve the compressible Navier-Stokes equations. The Hybrid code uses high-order numerics on structured Cartesian grids while the uPDE code is an unstructured finite-volume code with the ability to handle moving boundaries and fluid-structure interaction.
The data from the turbulent boundary layer simulations have been used to inspire and validate an improved method to make engineering predictions of the skin friction and heat transfer in supersonic turbulent boundary layers. The new method produces estimates to within 5-8% accuracy across all Mach numbers and wall thermal conditions, compared with about 10-15% accuracy of existing state-of-the-art methods at some conditions.
The data from the shock/boundary-layer interaction simulations have been used to build a deeper understanding into the effects of three-dimensionality on these flows. The addition of a cross flow increases the size of the separated flow region without increasing the low-frequency unsteadiness of the interaction.
