Moving Discontinuous Galerkin Solver for Hypersonic Aerothermodynamics

Computational modeling of hypersonic flows is now more important than ever with the recent push in hypersonic technologies in NASA and in the defense industry. The state-of-the-art computational fluid dynamic (CFD) capabilities, however, still have many limitations in terms of accuracy, fidelity, and robustness which need to be addressed. For example, a 3-D Navier-Stokes solution with thermal and chemical nonequilibrium requires on the order of weeks to develop a sensible grid, the gridded geometry must be greatly simplified, requires careful monitoring of the solution as it runs since the problems are numerically ldquo;stiffrdquo; and are quick to ldquo;crashrdquo;, and the solution accuracy is limited by the numerical schemes employed.In response to this need, we propose to develop a compressible CFD solver employing a novel moving Discontinuous Galerkin with Interface Conservation Enforcement (MDG+ICE) approach including thermal and chemical non-equilibrium physics. In addition to all of the advantages of standard DG methods, discontinuous interfaces are not explicitly tracked and rather solved and obtained implicitly as a result of the interface conservation enforcement, which is enforced via grid movement. The MDG+ICE method represents a fundamentally grounded and break-through approach, and is specifically designed for flows with discontinuities and therefore especially attractive for hypersonic flows. This capability would enable a faster turn-around for modeling the complex physics relevant to entry-type problems due to increased robustness, higher order numerics less sensitive to mesh topologies and resolutions, and flexibility afforded by unstructured grids.