Rarefied gas effect in hypersonic shear flows

Recently, as aerodynamics was applied to flying vehicles with very high speed and flying at high altitude, the numerical simulation based on the Navier-Stokes (NS) equations was found that cannot correctly predict certain aero-thermo-dynamic properties in a certain range of velocity and altitude while the Knudsen number indicates that the flow is still in the continuum regime. As first noted by Zhou and Zhang (Science in China, 2015), the invalidity of NS equations for such flows might be attributed to an non-equilibrium effect originating from the combined effects of gas rarefaction and strong shear in the boundary-layer flows. In this paper, we present the scope, physical concept, mathematical model of this shear non-equilibrium effect in hypersonic flows, as well as the way of considering this effect in conventional computational fluid mechanics (CFD) for engineering applications. Several hypersonic flows over sharp bodies and blunt bodies are analyzed by the proposed new continuum model, named direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) data-improved Navier-Stokes (DiNS) model. Graphic abstract Recently, as aerodynamics was applied to flying vehicles with very high speed and flying at high altitude, the numerical simulation based on the Navier-Stokes (NS) equations was found that cannot correctly predict certain aero-thermo-dynamic properties in a certain range of velocity and altitude while the Knudsen number indicates that the flow is still in the continuum regime. As first noted by Zhou and Zhang (Science in China, 2015), the invalidity of NS equations for such flows might be attributed to an non-equilibrium effect originating from the combined effects of gas rarefaction and strong shear in the boundary-layer flows. In this paper, we present the scope, physical concept, mathematical model of this shear non-equilibrium effect in hypersonic flows, as well as the way of considering this effect in conventional computational fluid mechanics (CFD) for engineering applications. Several hypersonic flows over sharp bodies and blunt bodies are analyzed by the proposed new continuum model, named direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) data-improved Navier-Stokes (DiNS) model..