THE CALCULATION OF TWO- AND THREE-DIMENSIONAL INVISCID UNSTEADY FLOWS BY THE METHOD OF CHARACTERISTICS

Abstract

The problem of the numerical solution by the method of characteristics of the two- and three-dimensional flow of an inviscid nonequilibrium gas is formulated. For unsteady flows the method is limited, for practical reasons, to the solution of hypersonic or other flows which have short transient times. The specific details of the finite difference network and the associated finite difference equations are presented. It was found that numerical instability was possible with certain previously proposed networks. An existing stability criterion was found to apply to the multidimensional method of characteristics and this criterion was used to synthesize a stable finite difference network. High speed digital computer programs are presented which perform the numerical calculation. Four example cases of the flow about a circular cylinder with its axis perpendicular to a Mach five free stream are presented.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 01, 1964
Accession Number
AD0605324

Entities

People

  • Harry Sauerwein

Organizations

  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Blunt Bodies
  • Computational Fluid Dynamics
  • Computational Science
  • Computer Programming
  • Computer Programs
  • Computers
  • Difference Equations
  • Differential Equations
  • Fluid Dynamics
  • Geometry
  • Partial Differential Equations
  • Shock Waves
  • Steady Flow
  • Three Dimensional
  • Two Dimensional
  • Unsteady Flow

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Fluid Mechanics and Fluid Dynamics.
  • Operations Research
  • Systems Analysis and Design

Technology Areas

  • Hypersonics
  • Hypersonics - Hypersonic Flight