Efficient Computational Analysis of Hypersonic Blunt Body Flows for Engineering Applications

The SGI was used in the development of a new Computational Fluid Dynamics computer program for the calculation of hypersonic flows over blunt bodies. The CFD program has been used to verify experimental results obtained from the Mechanical Engineering Department's T4 hypervelocity shock tunnel, and expansion tube. The code has also been used to investigate the feasibility of a numerical Air Data System calibration.

When designing the shock tunnel experiments, results obtained on the SGI were used to determine the optimum size and location of models to be tested in the shock tunnel. Also, after the experiments were run, the code aided in the interpretation of results from experiments that had not been conducted under "ideal" test conditions.

The availability of support from the SGI administrators, as well as the development environment supplied on the machine, were both important factors which helped in the coding, testing, and optimizing of the program.

Publications:

1. Johnston I A and Jacobs P A "Hypersonic Blunt Body Flows in Reacting Carbon Dioxide" Proc Twelfth Australaisan Fluid Mech Conf V2 Dec95
2. Johnston I A and Jacobs P A "SF2D: A Shock Fitting and Capturing Solver for Two DImensional Compressible Flows" Dept of Mech Eng Technical Report 6/96 Univ of Qld Jul 96
3. Smith AL Johnston IA and Austin KJ "A Comparison of Numerical and Experimental Drag Measurement in Hypersonic Flow" Royal Aeronautical Journal.
4. Johnston, I. A., Tuttle, S. L., Jacobs, P. A. and Shimoda, T. "The numerical and experimental simulation of flow around the {HYFLEX} vehicle forebody." 21st International Symposium on Shock Waves Paper 6980, July 1997