Full-Field Sonic Boom Simulation in Stratified Atmosphere

Abstract

This paper discusses the usefulness of a full-field simulation as a sonic boom prediction method, wherein the analysis of the entire flowfield as a single computational domain is presented, including both the near field around a supersonic body and the far field reaching the ground. The three-dimensional Euler equations with a gravity term to create a realistic atmospheric model stratified with altitude are numerically solved by solution-adapted structured grids. Computations are made to reproduce the Drop test for Simplified Evaluation of Non-symmetrically Distributed sonic boom (D-SEND) #1, conducted by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. As a result, this paper describes the world’s first successful reproduction by direct flight-test simulation of the evaluation of a sonic boom strength. The computational results clarify the sonic boom propagation, including the three-dimensional structure of the shock wave in the real environmental condition. Moreover, the results of the full-field simulations are in good agreement with those of the waveform parameter method, which is a representative prediction method for sonic booms, and the flight-test data in the D-SEND database provided by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.