A study of the effects of thermal radiation and of bulk viscosity in hypersonic reactive flows

• Grant number: 22/07604-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Post-doctor
• Effective date (Start): December 01, 2022
• Effective date (End): November 30, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Aerospace Engineering - Aerodynamics
• Principal Investigator: João Luiz Filgueiras de Azevedo
• Grantee: Farney Coutinho Moreira
• Supervisor: Deborah A. Levin
• Host Institution: Pró-Reitoria de Pós-Graduação e Pesquisa. Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica (ITA). Ministério da Defesa (Brasil). São José dos Campos , SP, Brazil
• Research place: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, United States
• Associated to the scholarship: 21/02705-8 - Aerothermodynamic analysis of hypersonic flows with applications for atmospheric reentry procedures, BP.PD

Abstract

The present research proposal combines continuum and particle methods to investigate hypersonic flows including effects of thermal radiation on the distribution of surface heat flux over the vehicle. During the atmospheric reentry procedure, strong shock waves are formed around the vehicle enhancing the conversion of gas kinetic energy into thermal energy which is, in turn, transferred to the vehicle surface as heat. At extreme Mach numbers and high temperatures, where plasma may also occur, the radiation heat flux can represent up to approximately 18% of the total heat flux, depending of the flow conditions. In order to improve the prediction capability of thermal loads in aerospace vehicles, we will investigate the thermal radiation mechanisms using a particle method approach. This will enable a future implementation of the radiative heat flux capability in the computational tools currently under development in the present research group, which model the flows of interest using a continuum approach. This work will also address a study of the effects of bulk viscosity on thermodynamic non-equilibrium flows over aerospace configurations. Several aspects of hypersonic flows remain open in the literature. For example, in terms of the flow physics, the role of the bulk viscosity coefficient is not fully understood. Most studies devoted to numerical modeling of viscous gas flows have taken into account only the shear viscosity coefficient while the bulk viscosity is usually neglected, despite the fact that, in some gas mixtures, its magnitude can be much higher than that of the shear viscosity. Therefore, this international research internship will bring contributions to the topic of atmospheric reentry with applications to more realistic flow configurations. (AU)