Study on the numerical schemes for hypersonic flow simulation

Hypersonic flow is full of complex physical and chemical processes, hence its investigation needs careful analysis of existing schemes and choosing a suitable scheme or designing a brand new scheme. The present study deals with two numerical schemes Harten, Lax, and van Leer with Contact (HLLC) and advection upstream splitting method (AUSM) to effectively simulate hypersonic flow fields, and accurately predict shock waves with minimal diffusion. In present computations, hypersonic flows have been modeled as a system of hyperbolic equations with one additional equation for non-equilibrium energy and relaxing source terms. Real gas effects, which appear typically in hypersonic flows, have been simulated through energy relaxation method. HLLC and AUSM methods are modified to incorporate the conservation laws for non-equilibrium energy. Numerical implementation have shown that non-equilibrium energy convect with mass, and hence has no bearing on the basic numerical scheme. The numerical simulation carried out shows good comparison with experimental data available in literature. Both numerical schemes have shown identical results at equilibrium. Present study has demonstrated that real gas effects in hypersonic flows can be modeled through energy relaxation method along with either AUSM or HLLC numerical scheme.