DNS and Constrained Nonlinear Analysis of the BOLT-II Flight Experiment

Abstract

Turbulence occur in most existing and future high-speed flight system flowfields, yet there is very little high-quality data at relevant flight conditions. The BOLT-II sounding rocket experiment will provide novel data in this flight regime for turbulence model validation and understanding of compressible turbulence. The proposed research will perform high-fidelity simulations of the BOLT-II flow field, and use emerging nonlinear systems analysis methods to improve the fundamental understanding of critical aspects of compressible turbulence. The proposed research builds on simulations of the BOLT-I flight experiment, in which direct numerical simulations were used to uncover the dominant boundary layer instability mechanisms that cause transition to turbulence. High-order, low-dissipation numerical methods will be used to target critical regions of the BOLT-II flowfield to obtain statistically exact simulations of turbulence. The research will extend this work through the development of secondary instabilities and breakdown to fully-developed turbulence. These post-transitional and turbulent flows involve the interplay between linear and nonlinear terms in the compressible Navier-Stokes equations, giving rise to complex multi-scale dynamics that can be difficult to interpret. The research will formulate new flow analysis techniques to add value to the DNS and to address higher-order questions. The approach builds upon constrained nonlinear systems theory, exploiting the fact that nonlinear flow interactions are constrained by the physics encoded in the Navier-Stokes equations. By accounting for these physical constraints, the proposed analysis approach creates opportunities to extract coherent structures and isolate dominant nonlinear flow interactions underlying these complex flow processes.

Document Details

Document Type
DoD Grant Award
Publication Date
Mar 07, 2023
Source ID
FA95502110106

Entities

People

  • Graham Vardy Candler

Organizations

  • Air Force Office of Scientific Research
  • Regents of the University of Minnesota
  • United States Air Force

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
  • Fluid Mechanics and Fluid Dynamics.