Direct Numerical Simulation of Acoustic Disturbances in the Rectangular Test Section of a Hypersonic Wind Tunnel

Direct numerical simulations (DNS) of the full-scale rectangular nozzle of a hypersonic wind tunnel are conducted to study the acoustic freestream fluctuations radiating from turbulent boundary layers (TBLs) along the nozzle walls. The nozzle geometry and the flow conditions of the DNS match those of the NASA 20-Inch Mach 6 Tunnel, and the DNS has been completed for a domain without spanwise sidewall boundary conditions. The turbulent boundary layer parameters based on the DNS compare well with those derived from Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) calculations as well as with the predictions based on Pates correlation. A similarly good comparison is observed for both the Mach number distribution and the Reynolds stresses obtained from the DNS and RANS calculations, respectively. Various characteristics of the acoustic pressure fluctuations within the inviscid core of the nozzle flow are compared with those associated with a single flat plate at a similar freestream Mach number. The frequency spectrum and bulk propagation speeds match well between the nozzle and the flat plate, but the rms pressure fluctuation is higher for the nozzle configuration, likely due to the combined effect of acoustic radiation from the top and bottom walls. Spatial contours of the two-point correlation coefficient display elliptical tails with approximately equal but opposite angles corresponding to the preferred directionality of acoustic structures radiated from both walls. Future work will focus on DNS of the full nozzle configuration, including the effects of the nozzle side walls

Global and Koopman modes analysis of sound generation in mixing layers

It is now well established that linear and nonlinear instability waves play a significant role in the noise generation process for a wide variety of shear flows such as jets or mixing layers. In that context, the problem of acoustic radiation generated by spatially growing instability waves of two-dimensional subsonic and supersonic mixing layers are revisited in a global point of view, i.e., without any assumption about the base flow, in both a linear and a nonlinear framework by using global and Koopman mode decompositions. In that respect, a timestepping technique based on disturbance equations is employed to extract the most dynamically relevant coherent structures for both linear and nonlinear regimes. The present analysis proposes thus a general strategy for analysing the near-field coherent structures which are responsible for the acoustic noise in these configurations. In particular, we illustrate the failure of linear global modes to describe the noise generation mechanism associated with the vortex pairing for the subsonic regime whereas they appropriately explain the Mach wave radiation of instability waves in the supersonic regime. By contrast, the Dynamic Mode Decomposition (DMD) analysis captures both the near-field dynamics and the far-field acoustics with a few number of modes for both configurations. In addition, the combination of DMD and linear global modes analyses provides new insight about the influence on the radiated noise of nonlinear interactions and saturation of instability waves as well as their interaction with the mean flow

Stratospheric turbulence measurements and models for aerospace plane design

Progress in computational atmospheric dynamics is exhibiting the ability of numerical simulation to describe instability processes associated with turbulence observed at altitudes between 15 and 25 km in the lower stratosphere. As these numerical simulation tools mature, they can be used to extend estimates of atmospheric perturbations from the present gust database for airplane design at altitudes below 15 km to altitudes between 25 and 50 km where aerospace plane operation would be at hypersonic speeds. The amount of available gust data and number of temperature perturbation observations are limited at altitudes between 15 and 25 km. On the other hand, in-situ gust data at higher altitudes are virtually nonexistent. The uncertain potential for future airbreathing hypersonic flight research vehicles to encounter strong turbulence at higher altitudes could penalize the design of these vehicles by undue cost or limitations on performance. Because the atmospheric structure changes markedly with altitude, direct extrapolation of gust magnitudes and encounter probabilities to the higher flight altitudes is not advisable. This paper presents a brief review of turbulence characteristics observed in the lower stratosphere and highlights the progress of computational atmospheric dynamics that may be used to estimate the severity of atmospheric transients at higher altitudes

Hydrodynamic instabilities in gaseous detonations: comparison of Euler, Navier–Stokes, and large-eddy simulation

A large-eddy simulation is conducted to investigate the transient structure of an unstable detonation wave in two dimensions and the evolution of intrinsic hydrodynamic instabilities. The dependency of the detonation structure on the grid resolution is investigated, and the structures obtained by large-eddy simulation are compared with the predictions from solving the Euler and Navier–Stokes equations directly. The results indicate that to predict irregular detonation structures in agreement with experimental observations the vorticity generation and dissipation in small scale structures should be taken into account. Thus, large-eddy simulation with high grid resolution is required. In a low grid resolution scenario, in which numerical diffusion dominates, the structures obtained by solving the Euler or Navier–Stokes equations and large-eddy simulation are qualitatively similar. When high grid resolution is employed, the detonation structures obtained by solving the Euler or Navier–Stokes equations directly are roughly similar yet equally in disagreement with the experimental results. For high grid resolution, only the large-eddy simulation predicts detonation substructures correctly, a fact that is attributed to the increased dissipation provided by the subgrid scale model. Specific to the investigated configuration, major differences are observed in the occurrence of unreacted gas pockets in the high-resolution Euler and Navier–Stokes computations, which appear to be fully combusted when large-eddy simulation is employed

Astrophysical turbulence modeling

The role of turbulence in various astrophysical settings is reviewed. Among the differences to laboratory and atmospheric turbulence we highlight the ubiquitous presence of magnetic fields that are generally produced and maintained by dynamo action. The extreme temperature and density contrasts and stratifications are emphasized in connection with turbulence in the interstellar medium and in stars with outer convection zones, respectively. In many cases turbulence plays an essential role in facilitating enhanced transport of mass, momentum, energy, and magnetic fields in terms of the corresponding coarse-grained mean fields. Those transport properties are usually strongly modified by anisotropies and often completely new effects emerge in such a description that have no correspondence in terms of the original (non coarse-grained) fields.Comment: 88 pages, 26 figures, published in Reports on Progress in Physic

Absolute/convective instabilities and the convective Mach number in a compressible mixing layer

Two aspects of the stability of a compressible mixing layer: Absolute/Convective instability and the convective Mach number were considered. It was shown that, for Mach numbers less than one, the compressible mixing layer is convectively unstable unless there is an appreciable amount of backflow. Also presented was a rigorous derivation of a convective Mach number based on linear stability theory for the flow of a multi-species gas in a mixing layer. The result is compared with the heuristic definitions of others and to selected experimental results