Thermochemical non-equilibrium effects on hypersonic shock wave/turbulent boundary-layer interaction

The research on shock wave/turbulent boundary-layer interactions is mainly limited to calorically perfect gases; little has been reported on the thermochemical non-equilibrium (real gas) effect. This effect is prominent at conditions of high Mach and Reynolds numbers. In this work, a household parallel solver for hypersonic thermochemical non-equilibrium flows with a Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes turbulence model is developed in which the coupling of turbulence with vibration and chemistry occurs under a gradient-law assumption. The thermal non-equilibrium is based on Park's two-temperature model, and the chemical non-equilibrium is based on Gupta's 11-species model. The method proposed in this paper is first validated using experimental data, including cases of a laminar cylinder flow at a high-enthalpy condition, a supersonic flat-plate turbulent boundary layer flow, a hypersonic transition flow, and a hypersonic compression corner flow at a low-enthalpy condition. This approach is then applied to assess the hypersonic flow characteristics past the 34 degrees compression corner at a flight height of 30 km. Results show that the joint effects of turbulence and thermochemical non-equilibrium have a significant impact on the flow field organization, wall data, and separation length of the shock wave/boundary-layer interaction. Furthermore, the mechanism of the neck region accompanied by maximum heat flux, wall pressure and skin friction in both laminar and turbulent cases is well-interpreted. This study can be used as a reference tool for the aerodynamic design of future hypersonic vehicles accounting for multi-physics effects.