Evaluation of applicability of various turbulence models for investigation of high-speed flows in air intakes

Abstract

The study focuses on the problem of optimization of the shock wave system which implements the maximum total pressure. Relying on the problem solution, we selected the configuration of a supersonic air intake of external compression and carried out numerical simulation of the flow in the air intake in flight conditions with the free-stream Mach number equal to 7.5 using the ideal gas model for calculations. The system of Favre-averaged Navier — Stokes equations was supplemented by one of the turbulence models: Spalart — Allmaras model, k–ε, k–ω, and γ–Reθ. The paper deals with both two-dimensional and three-dimensional configurations of the air input and studies the influence of angles of attack, wall temperature, and free-stream Mach number on the flow characteristics. Within the research, we determined the ranges of Mach numbers corresponding to the starting mode of the air intake and described the hysteresis of characteristics at the transition of the air intake to the start-up mode for various turbulence models.