Numerical Investigation of Interaction of Counter Flow Jet and Hypersonic Capsule Flow Via Modified DsmcFoam

Abstract

Abstract In this work, numerical investigation of interaction of counter flow jet and hypersonic re-entry capsule flow has been carried out through modification of DsmcFoam solver. The DsmcFoam modification includes implementation of variable soft sphere (VSS) collision model for more accurate collision model, adjustment of nonuniform initial condition for faster convergence and nonuniform boundary condition, calculation of local Knudsen number in postprocessing for adaptive grid generation, and implementation of different gas species for multigas flow interaction simulations. Therefore, the modified DsmcFoam can be used for investigation of the effect of counter flow jet on the vehicle aerodynamics and aerothermodynamics. New validation test cases from Von Karman gas dynamics facility (VKF) tunnel data of Apollo and blunt-cone re-entry geometries are studied via DsmcFoam in which a suitable agreement of results is observed compared to experimental data and also MONACO code computations. Also, the influence of counter flow jet has been presented, i.e., changing of bow shock configuration and its distance from the vehicle. Consequently, it is observed that by increasing counter flow jet velocity or density, reduction of the drag coefficient and heat flux on the vehicle will occur. Furthermore, variation of the velocity or density of counter flow jet leads to different jet-flow interaction patterns which are presented evidently.