Advanced Hybrid Software for Hypersonic Flows

A single computational fluid dynamic (CFD) code that can treat problems in multiple flight regimes in hypersonic flows is needed by aerospace vehicle designers who have the task of evaluating vehicle aerodynamics in a variety of flight regimes: rarefied,transitional, and continuum. Such a capability will also be quite useful for aerodynamic optimization of vehicle shapes in the stability analysis tradeoffs. At the present time, no such predictive capability exists, either in government or the commercialsector. The innovative research proposed by Thaerocomp Technical Corporation (TTC) will lead to the development, implementation, and a thorough validation of an accurate, stable, and computationally efficient unified software for the analysis of themultiple regimes in hypersonic flows. The numerical procedures will be specially designed to address the usual bottlenecks associated with this application, such as poor computational efficiency, numerical stability and robustness problems, and inadequatevalidation. The code will be developed to run on sequential computers, as well as on parallel computers, which is essential because of the high cost of multiple flight regime calculations. The speedup from the CFD computation will enable parametric testingof many design configurations on a timely basis, leading to significant savings in analysis time and money. The software tool proposed by Thaerocomp Technical Corporation (TTC) is a marketable product that promises substantial reduction in the cost ofanalysis and design cycles. Many government (military and civilian) programs will benefit from the innovation. The reduction in the time-to-market that results from using the product enhances the profitability of the numerous commercial industries that usethe computational fluid dynamics (CFD) technology for competitive edge. Airframe companies and CFD vendors will find the product useful in achieving competitive edge. Most industries using CFD do not have the capability for accurate unified hypersonic flowcalculations, and so are not set up to address a variety of in-flight problems under hypersonic conditions. Therefore, TTC's new product line will be quite marketable, as companies find it cheaper to plug it into their own CFD software packages rather thandeveloping the capability from scratch. The more efficient, stable, and accurate predictions from the resulting code will also bring more consulting business to Thaerocomp.