Computational and Experimental Study of Supersonic Nozzle Flow and Shock Interactions

This study focused on the capability of NASA Tetrahedral Unstructured Software System’s CFD code USM3D capability to predict the interaction between a shock and supersonic plume flow. Previous studies, published in 2004, 2009 and 2013, investigated USM3D’s supersonic plume flow results versus historical experimental data. This current study builds on that research by utilizing the best practices from the early papers for properly capturing the plume flow and then adding a wedge acting as a shock generator. This computational study is in conjunction with experimental tests conducted at the Glenn Research Center 1’x1’ Supersonic Wind Tunnel. The comparison of the computational and experimental data shows good agreement for location and strength of the shocks although there are vertical shifts between the data sets that may be do to the measurement technique.

[1]  F. Menter.  Improved two-equation k-omega turbulence models for aerodynamic flows , 1992 .

[2]  P. Spalart.  A One-Equation Turbulence Model for Aerodynamic Flows , 1992 .

[3]  Richard L. Campbell,et al.  USM3D Predictions of Supersonic Nozzle Flow , 2014 .

[4]  Neal T. Frink,et al.  Enhancement of USM3D Unstructured Flow Solver for High-Speed High-Temperature Shear Flows , 2009 .

[5]  Raymond S. Castner,et al.  Plume and Shock Interaction Effects on Sonic Boom in the 1-foot by 1-foot Supersonic Wind Tunnel , 2015 .

[6]  S. Z. Pinckney,et al.  A short static-pressure probe design for supersonic flow , 1975 .

[7]  Raymond S. Castner.  Exhaust Nozzle Plume Effects on Sonic Boom , 2012 .

[8]  Raymond S. Castner.  Exhaust Nozzle Plume Effects on Sonic Boom Test Results for Vectored Nozzles , 2013 .

[9]  Neal T. Frink,et al.  Three-dimensional upward scheme for solving the Euler equations on unstructured tetrahedral grids , 1991 .

[10]  Paresh Parikh,et al.  Generation of three-dimensional unstructured grids by the advancing-front method , 1988 .

[11]  Rainald Löhner,et al.  Three-dimensional grid generation by the advancing front method , 1988 .

[12]  Richard L. Campbell,et al.  Summary of the 2008 NASA Fundamental Aeronautics Program Sonic Boom Prediction Workshop , 2013 .

[13]  Ronald H. Soeder,et al.  NASA Glenn 1-By 1-Foot Supersonic Wind Tunnel User Manual , 2013 .

[14]  Paresh Parikh,et al.  The NASA tetrahedral unstructured software system (TetrUSS) , 2000, The Aeronautical Journal (1968).

[15]  Shahyar Pirzadeh,et al.  Three-dimensional unstructured viscous grids by the advancing-layers method , 1996 .

[16]  P. Roe.  CHARACTERISTIC-BASED SCHEMES FOR THE EULER EQUATIONS , 1986 .

[17]  Melissa B. Carter,et al.  Numerical Examination of Shock Generator Geometries and Nozzle Plume Effects on Pressure Signature , 2016 .