FOR HIGH ENERGY LASER FLOWS

AN EFFICIENT COMPUTATIONAL METHOD IS PROPOSED FOR MODELING THE COMPLEX PHYSICAL PHENOMENA OCCURING IN HIGH ENERGY CONTINUOUS WAVE LASER FLOW FIELDS. THESE FLOWS TYPICALLY CONTAIN BOUNDARY LAYERS, MIXING LAYERS, WAKES, AND EMBEDDED SHOCK WAVES. IT IS DIFFICULT TO GENERATE A MESH APRIOR WHICH WILL RESOLVE ALL FEATURES OF THE FLOW. THEREFORE, AN ADAPTIVE GRID TECHNIQUE WILL BE USED AND COUPLED TO AN UNFACTORED IMPLICIT FINITE VOLUME FLOW SOLVER, THE EFFICIENCY OF WHICH IS VERY INSENSITIVE TO MESH SPACING. THE PERFORMANCE OF THE COUPLED ADAPTIVE GRID/FLOW SOLVER WILL BE EVALUATED FOR A CHEMICAL LASER NOZZLE/CAVITY FLOW.