Theoretical and Numerical Studies of Transonic Flow of Moist Air Around a Thin Airfoil

Numerical studies of a two-dimensional and steady transonic flow of moist air around a thin airfoil with condensation are presented. The computations are guided by a recent transonic small-disturbance (TSD) theory of Rusak and Lee (2000) on this topic. The asymptotic model provides a simplified framework to investigate the changes in the flow field caused by the heat addition from a nonequilibrium process of condensation of water vapor in the air by homogeneous nucleation. An iterative method which is based on a type-sensitive difference scheme is applied to solve the governing equations. The results demonstrate the similarity rules for transonic flow of moist air and the effects of energy supply by condensation on the flow behavior. They provide a method to formulate various cases with different flow properties that have a sufficiently close behavior and that can be used in future computations, experiments, and design of flow systems operating with moist air. Also, the computations show that the TSD solutions of moist air flows represent the essence of the flow character computed from the inviscid fluid flow equations. Received 5 October 2000 and accepted 21 March 2002