Simulation of shock-induced combustion past blunt projectiles using shock-fitting technique

Abstract

Two-dimensional axisymmetric, reacting viscous flow over blunt projectiles is computed to study shockinduced combustion at Mach 5.11 and 6.46 in hydrogen-air mixture. A finite difference, shock-fitting method is used to solve the complete set of Navier- Stokes and species conservation equations. In this approach, the bow shock represents a boundary of the computational domain and is treated as a discontinuity across which Rankine-Hugoniot conditions are applied. All interior details of the flow such as compression waves, reaction front, and the wall boundary layer are captured automatically in the solution. Since the shock-fitting approach reduces the amount of artificial dissipation, all intricate details of the flow are captured much more clearly than has been possible with the shock-capturing approach. This has allowed an improved understanding of the physics of shock-induced combustion over blunt projectiles and the numerical results can now be explained more readily with a one-dimensional wave-interacti on model.