Advanced Turbulence Models for High Mach Number Wall-Bounded Flows

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is playing a crucial role in the development of the next generation of advanced aerodynamic vehicles, such as the National Aero-Space Plane (NASP). CFD tools are critical to analyze the high Mach number flows typical of these advanced flight vehicles because of limitations on experimental facilities under these extreme flight conditions. However, the validity of CFD codes is limited by their ability to accurately model the complex turbulence processes of high speed flows. Our recent innovations in the development of turbulence transport models based on renormalization group (RNG) methods promise to render many of the most difficult engineering problems of the NASP tractable. Here, we propose to extend and then apply these models to high Mach number wall-bounded compressible flows in which previous modeling efforts have failed. We shall use our HERCULES unstructured grid code as the initial platform for these studies. To expedite access to the new technology for Wright-Patterson personnel, as well as to provide critical feedback to CHI for the commercialization phase, we also propose to implement the new turbulence models in appropriate Air Force software. This work will yield a practical engineering analysis tool for the NASP project.