Computational analysis of supersonic turbulent boundary layers over rough surfaces using the k–ω and the stress–ω models

The influence of surface roughness in the prediction of the mean flow and turbulent properties of a high-speed supersonic (M = 2.7, Re/m = 2 × 10⁷) turbulent boundary layer flow over a flat plate is numerically investigated. In particular, the performance of the k–ω and stress–ω turbulence models is evaluated against the available experimental data. Even though the performance of these models have been proven satisfactory in the computation of incompressible boundary layer flow over rough surfaces, their validity for high-speed compressible has not been investigated yet. It is observed from this study that, for smooth surface, both k–ω and stress–ω models perform very well in predicting the mean flow and turbulence quantities in supersonic flow. For rough surfaces, both models matched the experimental data fairly well for lower roughness heights but performed unsatisfactorily for higher roughness conditions. Overall the performance of the k–ω model is better than the stress–ω model. The stress–ω model does not show any strong advantages to make up for the extra computational cost associated with it. The predictions indicate that the ω boundary conditions at the wall in both models, especially the stress–ω model, need to be refined and reconsidered to include the geometric factor for supersonic flow over surfaces with large roughness values.