Simplified CFD based Approach for Estimation of Heat Flux over Wedge Models in High Speed Plasma Flows

Abstract

Analysis of plasma flows at hypersonic velocity over blunt bodies is quite complex and challenging as it involves complex flow physics and carries several uncertainties. Simultaneous simulation of all the parameters as existing in re-entry flight puts constraints on most of the ground based experiments. Numerical simulations, on the other hand, require modelling of ionisation and real gas effects and prove to be computationally costly. This paper highlights the development of unstructured, cell centred second order accurate parallel version of in-house computational fluid dynamics (CFD) solver where high temperature equivalent properties used from Hansen’s 7 species model and establishment of a simplified procedure for estimation of heat flux over wedge models tested in Plasma Wind Tunnel facility, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre. Numerical simulations were carried out for Plasma tunnel initially to get the flow properties inside the tunnel when operated without any model. A simplified CFD based approach is established for computing the heat flux over the bodies tested inside the tunnel and compared with the measured data. The comparison of numerical and measured values shows that the proposed methodology captures the flow physics and various parameters with acceptable levels of accuracy.