Reduced Order Modeling of a Supersonic Flow Field

Abstract

This paper covers the development of a new reduced order model for supersonic flow fields. The name of the method is the small disturbance streamline method. Its purpose is to model the unsteady flow dynamics of 2-D or 3-D inviscid, supersonic flow fields in response to small-amplitude perturbations in a quasi-1-D model. The primary motivation of this research is focused on reduced order modeling of supersonic inlets to be used as part of a larger propulsion system or aero-propulso-servo-elastic model. Previous reduced order models have focused mainly on the internal duct portion of the inlets while using simple methods for the unsteady dynamics of the external compression portion. While this method is applicable to internal ducts without normal shocks, the main contribution is in modeling the external supersonic compression portion. Four test cases of increasing complexity are provided and compared with a chosen state-of-the-art method. All results are verified with a high-fidelity computational fluid dynamics code.