Study of the Shock Wave–Turbulent Boundary Layer Interaction Using a 3D von Kármán Length Scale

Abstract

Abstract Traditional turbulence models are initially formulated and calibrated under incompressible conditions. Thus, these models are always of low fidelity when extended to high speed, complex and compressible flows. In this work, a compressible von Kármán length scale is proposed for compressible flows considering the variable densities. The length scale is the ratio between the new vorticity and its gradient. The new length scale is actually based on phenomenological theory, which is then integrated into the KDO (turbulence Kinetic energy Dependent Only) turbulence model, arriving at a compressible model called CKDO (Compressible KDO). In the CKDO turbulence model, all the extra terms produced by compressibility are modeled as dissipation. Compression corners of 8, 16, 20 and 24 angles are studied within SST, SA, KDO and CKDO. These test cases are known as the typical shock wave–boundary layer interactions. The results show that the new length scale in CKDO is able to well capture the surface pressure and skin friction distributions. Besides, compared with the standard von Kármán length scale, the new length scale in CKDO can better capture the size and position of the separation bubble. With the increase of the corner angle, CKDO shows more prominent potential for describing compressible flows.