Numerical simulation of shock diffraction on unstructured meshes

Abstract

Shock diffraction over geometric obstacles is performed on two-dimensional unstructured triangular meshes using the AUSM+ flux-vector splitting scheme. Numerical simulations of shock diffraction using structured grids are reviewed in the literature, as are experimental results corresponding to the flow conditions studied. Present unstructured grid results for popular and challenging two-dimensional shock diffraction problems are presented and compared to experimental data and photographs. Benchmark and example test cases were chosen to cover a wide variety of Mach numbers for weak and strong shock waves, and for square and circular geometries. Both single and multiple obstacles are considered, as are obstacles located in the free field and confined in a channel.