Investigations for Supersonic Transports at Transonic and Supersonic Conditions

Several computational studies were conducted as part of NASA's High-Speed Research Program. Results of turbulence model comparisons from two studies on supersonic transport configurations performed during NASA's High-Speed Research program are given. The effects of grid topology and the representation of the actual wind-tunnel model geometry are also investigated. Results are presented for both transonic conditions at Mach 0.90 and supersonic conditions at Mach 2.48. A feature of these two studies was the availability of higher Reynolds number wind-tunnel data with which to compare the computational results. The transonic wind-tunnel data were obtained in the National Transonic Facility at NASA Langley Research Center, and the supersonic data were obtained in the Boeing Company Polysonic Wind Tunnel. The computational data were acquired using a state-of-the-art Navier-Stokes flow solver with a wide range of turbulence models implemented. The results show that the computed forces compare reasonably well with the experimental data, with the Baldwin-Lomax with Degani-Schiff modifications and the Baldwin-Barth models showing the best agreement for the transonic conditions and the Spalart-Allmaras model showing the best agreement for the supersonic conditions. The transonic results were more sensitive to the choice of turbulence model than were the supersonic results.