Assessment of a high-order shock-capturing central-difference scheme for hypersonic turbulent flow simulations

High-speed turbulent flows are encountered in most space-related applications (including exploration, tourism and defense fields) and represent a subject of growing interest in the last decades. A major challenge in performing high-fidelity simulations of such flows resides in the stringent requirements for the numerical schemes to be used. These must be robust enough to handle strong, unsteady discontinuities, while ensuring low amounts of intrinsic dissipation in smooth flow regions. Furthermore, the wide range of temporal and spatial active scales leads to concurrent needs for numerical stabilization and accurate representation of the smallest resolved flow scales in cases of under-resolved configurations. In this paper, we present a finite-difference high-order shock-capturing technique based on Jameson's artificial diffusivity methodology. The resulting scheme is ninth-order-accurate far from discontinuities and relies on the addition of artificial dissipation close to large gradients. The shock detector is slightly revised to enhance its selectivity and avoid spurious activations of the shock-capturing term. A suite of test cases ranging from 1D to 3D configurations (namely, shock tubes, Shu-Osher problem, isentropic vortex advection, under-expanded jet, compressible Taylor-Green Vortex, supersonic and hypersonic turbulent boundary layers) is analysed in order to test the capability of the proposed numerical strategy to handle a large variety of problems, ranging from calorically-perfect air to multi-species reactive flows. Results obtained on under-resolved grids are also considered to test the applicability of the proposed strategy in the context of implicit Large-Eddy Simulations

Finite-rate chemistry effects in turbulent hypersonic boundary layers: a direct numerical simulation study

The influence of high-enthalpy effects on hypersonic turbulent boundary layers is investigated by means of direct numerical simulations (DNS). A quasi-adiabatic flat-plate air flow at free-stream Mach number equal to 10 is simulated up to fully-developed turbulent conditions using a five-species, chemically-reacting model. A companion DNS based on a frozen-chemistry assumption is also carried out, in order to isolate the effect of finite-rate chemical reactions and assess their influence on turbulent quantities. In order to reduce uncertainties associated with turbulence generation at the inlet of the computational domain, both simulations are initiated in the laminar flow region and the flow is let to evolve up to the fully turbulent regime. Modal forcing by means of localized suction and blowing is used to trigger laminar-to-turbulent transition. The high temperatures reached in the near wall region including the viscous and buffer sublayers activate significant dissociation of both oxygen and nitrogen. This modifies in turn the thermodynamic and transport properties of the reacting mixture, affecting the first-order statistics of thermodynamic quantities. Due to the endothermic nature of the chemical reactions in the forward direction, temperature and density fluctuations in the reacting layer are smaller than in the frozen-chemistry flow. However, the first- and second-order statistics of the velocity field are found to be little affected by the chemical reactions under a scaling that accounts for the modified fluid properties. We also observed that the Strong Reynolds Analogy (SRA) remains well respected despite the severe hypersonic conditions and that the computed skin friction coefficient distributions match well the results of the Renard-Deck decomposition extended to compressible flows

Numerical investigation of dense gas flows through transcritical multistage axial Organic Rankine Cycle turbines

Many recent studies suggest that supercritical Organic Rankine Cycles (ORCs), i.e., ORCs in which heat is supplied at a pressure greater than the liquid/vaport critical point pressure, have a great potential for low-temperature heat recovery applications, since they allow better recovery efficiency for a simplified cycle architecture. In this work we investigate supercritical flows of dense gases through axial, multi-stage, ORC turbines, using a numerical code including advanced equations of state and a high-order discretization scheme. At this stage, we focus on inviscid flow effects due to the peculiar thermodynamic behavior of the working fluids. Bidimensional numerical simulations are carried out, initially for a single stage and then for the complete turbine, for three working fluids: the refrigerants R134a and R245fa and carbon dioxide (CO2). For the last one, the turbine is simulated for both inlet and outlet supercritical conditions. For R134a and R245fa, both supercritical and subcritical inlet turbine conditions are considered, the outlet pressure being always subcritical. Numerical simulations are used to evaluate the turbine adiabatic efficiencies found in the different cases, and an in-detail investigation of the flow field across the turbine is carried out to understand the main loss mechanisms. Shock-wave formation is found to have a crucial impact on the overall performance: carbon dioxide is shown to provide an optimal behavior since, because of the high values of the speed of sound in this fluid, the flow field is completely subsonic and no shock-waves are created. However, carbon dioxide requires to work at pressures of the order of 50 bars, which leads to higher installation costs. The use of R134a ensures satisfactory adiabatic efficiencies, despite the presence of weak shocks at the suction sides of rotor blades, whereas R245fa develops, for the turbine configuration considered in this work, strong shocks leading to significant losses. For both fluids, using supercritical inlet conditions tends to increase turbine isentropic efficiency for a given pressure ratio since, at high pressures, their thermodynamic behavior significantly deviates from that of a perfect gas, slowing down the increase of the Mach number during turbine expansion, and leading to weaker shocks

A Priori Tests of RANS Models for Turbulent Channel Flows of a Dense Gas

Dense gas effects, encountered in many engineering applications, lead to unconventional variations of the thermodynamic and transport properties in the supersonic flow regime, which in turn are responsible for considerable modifications of turbulent flow behavior with respect to perfect gases. The most striking differences for wall-bounded turbulence are the decoupling of dynamic and thermal effects for gases with high specific heats, the liquid-like behavior of the viscosity and thermal conductivity, which tend to decrease away from the wall, and the increase of density fluctuations in the near wall region. The present work represents a first attempt of quantifying the influence of such dense gas effects on modeling assumptions employed for the closure of the Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations, with focus on the eddy viscosity and turbulent Prandtl number models. For that purpose, we use recent direct numerical simulation results for supersonic turbulent channel flows of PP11 (a heavy fluorocarbon representative of dense gases) at various bulk Mach and Reynolds numbers to carry out a priori tests of the validity of some currently-used models for the turbulent stresses and heat flux. More specifically, we examine the behavior of the modeled eddy viscosity for some low-Reynolds variants of the k−ε model and compare the results with those found for a perfect gas at similar conditions. We also investigate the behavior of the turbulent Prandtl number in dense gas flow and compare the results with the predictions of two well-established turbulent Prandtl number models

Direct numerical simulations of supersonic turbulent channel flows of dense gases

The influence of dense-gas effects on compressible wall-bounded turbulence is investigated by means of direct numerical simulations of supersonic turbulent channel flows. Results are obtained for PP11, a heavy fluorocarbon representative of dense gases, the thermophysics properties of which are described by using a fifth-order virial equation of state and advanced models for the transport properties. In the dense-gas regime, the speed of sound varies non-monotonically in small perturbations and the dependency of the transport properties on the fluid density (in addition to the temperature) is no longer negligible. A parametric study is carried out by varying the bulk Mach and Reynolds numbers, and results are compared to those obtained for a perfect gas, namely air. Dense-gas flow exhibits almost negligible friction heating effects, since the high specific heat of the fluids leads to a loose coupling between thermal and kinetic fields, even at high Mach numbers. Despite negligible temperature variations across the channel, the mean viscosity tends to decrease from the channel walls to the centreline (liquid-like behaviour), due to its complex dependency on fluid density. On the other hand, strong density fluctuations are present, but due to the non-standard sound speed variation (opposite to the mean density evolution across the channel), the amplitude is maximal close to the channel wall, i.e. in the viscous sublayer instead of the buffer layer like in perfect gases. As a consequence, these fluctuations do not alter the turbulence structure significantly, and Morkovin’s hypothesis is well respected at any Mach number considered in the study. The preceding features make high Mach wall-bounded flows of dense gases similar to incompressible flows with variable properties, despite the significant fluctuations of density and speed of sound. Indeed, the semi-local scaling of Patel et al. (Phys. Fluids, vol. 27 (9), 2015, 095101) or Trettel & Larsson (Phys. Fluids, vol. 28 (2), 2016, 026102) is shown to be well adapted to compare results from existing surveys and with the well-documented incompressible limit. Additionally, for a dense gas the isothermal channel flow is also almost adiabatic, and the Van Driest transformation also performs reasonably well. The present observations open the way to the development of suitable models for dense-gas turbulent flows

Small-scale dynamics of dense gas compressible homogeneous isotropic turbulence

The present paper investigates the influence of dense gases governed by complex equations of state on the dynamics of homogeneous isotropic turbulence. In particular, we investigate how differences due to the complex thermodynamic behaviour and transport properties affect the small-scale structures, viscous dissipation and enstrophy generation. To this end, we carry out direct numerical simulations of the compressible Navier–Stokes equations supplemented by advanced dense gas constitutive models. The dense gas considered in the study is a heavy fluorocarbon (PP11) that is shown to exhibit an inversion zone (i.e. a region where the fundamental derivative of gas dynamics Γ is negative) in its vapour phase, for pressures and temperatures of the order of magnitude of the critical ones. Simulations are carried out at various initial turbulent Mach numbers and for two different initial thermodynamic states, one immediately outside and the other inside the inversion zone. After investigating the influence of dense gas effects on the time evolution of mean turbulence properties, we focus on the statistical properties of turbulent structures. For that purpose we carry out an analysis in the plane of the second and third invariant of the deviatoric strain-rate tensor. The analysis shows a weakening of compressive structures and an enhancement of expanding ones. Strong expansion regions are found to be mostly populated by non-focal convergence structures typical of strong compression regions, in contrast with the perfect gas that is dominated by eddy-like structures. Additionally, the contribution of non-focal expanding structures to the dilatational dissipation is comparable to that of compressed structures. This is due to the occurrence of steep expansion fronts and possibly of expansion shocklets which contribute to enstrophy generation in strong expansion regions and that counterbalance enstrophy destruction by means of the eddy-like structures

Dense gas effects in inviscid homogeneous isotropic turbulence

A detailed numerical study of the influence of dense gas effects on the large-scale dynamics of decaying homogeneous isotropic turbulence is carried out by using the van der Waals gas model. More specifically, we focus on dense gases of the Bethe–Zel’dovich–Thompson type, which may exhibit non-classical nonlinearities in the transonic and supersonic flow regimes, under suitable thermodynamic conditions. The simulations are based on the inviscid conservation equations, solved by means of a ninth-order numerical scheme. The simulations rely on the numerical viscosity of the scheme to dissipate energy at the finest scales, while leaving the larger scales mostly unaffected. The results are systematically compared with those obtained for a perfect gas. Dense gas effects are found to have a significant influence on the time evolution of the average and root mean square (r.m.s.) of the thermodynamic properties for flows characterized by sufficiently high initial turbulent Mach numbers (above 0.5), whereas the influence on kinematic properties, such as the kinetic energy and the vorticity, are smaller. However, the flow dilatational behaviour is very different, due to the non-classical variation of the speed of sound in flow regions where the dense gas is characterized by a value of the fundamental derivative of the gas dynamics (a measure of the variation of the speed of sound in isentropic compressions) smaller than one or even negative. The most significant differences between the perfect and the dense gas case are found for the repartition of dilatation levels in the flow field. For the perfect gas, strong compressions occupy a much larger volume fraction than expansion regions, leading to probability distributions of the velocity divergence highly skewed toward negative values. For the dense gas, the volume fractions occupied by strong expansion and compression regions are much more balanced; moreover, strong expansion regions are characterized by sheet-like structures, unlike the perfect gas which exhibits tubular structures. In strong compression regions, where compression shocklets may occur, both the dense and the perfect gas exhibit sheet-like structures. This suggests the possibility that expansion eddy shocklets may appear in the dense gas. This hypothesis is also supported by the fact that, in dense gas, vorticity is created with equal probability in strong compression and expansion regions, whereas for a perfect gas, vorticity is more likely to be created in the strong compression ones

Direct Numerical Simulation of a hypersonic boundary layer in chemical non-equilibrium

The influence of high-enthalpy effects in hypersonic, spatially developing boundary layers is investigated by means of direct numerical simulations. The flow of a reacting mixture of nitrogen and oxygen over a flat plate at Mach 10, previously investigated in the literature using linear stability theory (LST), is simulated using a compu-tational domain encompassing the laminar, transitional and turbulent regimes. Transition is triggered by forcing Mack’s second mode through suction and blowing at the wall. In the laminar region, the solution matches reasonably well the locally self-similar profiles, computed under chemical non-equilibrium assumptions. Strong dissociation phenomena are observed, due to the high temperatures reached close to the (uncooled) plate surface. The transitional regime is investigated by means of modal analysis. Despite the significant chemical activity, the results confirm the classical transition scenario for high-Mach number boundary layers, for which the second-mode resonance is the main mechanism responsible for turbulent breakdown. In the turbulent region, first- and second-order statistics reveal that chemical reactions do not modify significantly dynamic quantities such as velocity and Reynolds stress profiles, but greatly affect thermal properties, due to their endothermic nature. For the configuration at hand, chemical dissociation is slower than the characteristic time-scale of the flow, and the peak of chemical activity is located in the viscous sublayer, leading to mild modifications of the turbulent field compared to a frozen-chemistry model

DNS of turbulent flows of dense gases

The influence of dense gas effects on compressible turbulence is investigated by means of numerical simulations of the decay of compressible homogeneous isotropic turbulence (CHIT) and of supersonic turbulent flows through a plane channel (TCF). For both configurations, a parametric study on the Mach and Reynolds numbers is carried out. The dense gas considered in these parametric studies is PP11, a heavy fluorocarbon. The results are systematically compared to those obtained for a diatomic perfect gas (air). In our computations, the thermodynamic behaviour of the dense gases is modelled by means of the Martin-Hou equation of state. For CHIT cases, initial turbulent Mach numbers up to 1 are analyzed using mesh resolutions up to 5123. For TCF, bulk Mach numbers up to 3 and bulk Reynolds numbers up to 12000 are investigated. Average profiles of the thermodynamic quantities exhibit significant differences with respect to perfect-gas solutions for both of the configurations. For high-Mach CHIT, compressible structures are modified with respect to air, with weaker eddy shocklets and stronger expansions. In TCF, the velocity profiles of dense gas flows are much less sensitive to the Mach number and collapse reasonably well in the logarithmic region without any special need for compressible scalings, unlike the case of air, and the overall flow behaviour is midway between that of a variable-property liquid and that of a gas

Direct Numerical Simulation of hypersonic boundary layers in chemical non-equilibrium

The influence of high-temperature effects on compressible wall-bounded turbulence is investigated by means of a direct numerical simulation of a hypersonic, chemically out-of-equilibrium, turbulent boundary layer. The analysis aims at assessing the effects of chemical reactions on turbulence, also by comparing the results with those of a frozen flow. We will present a detailed analysis of the turbulent statistics and near-wall dynamics; the validity of some classical scalings and Reynolds analogy will also be discussed