Numerical investigation of viscous flow over a hemisphere-cylinder

A numerical analysis has been performed to investigate turbulent compressible flow over a hemisphere-cylinder body at zero incidence in the Mach number range of 0.8–2.0. The numerical code solves the Navier-Stokes equations using finite volume technique in conjunction with multistage Runge-Kutta time-stepping method. Comparisons have been made with the available experimental data such as shadowgraph pictures, shock stand-off distance, shock position and surface pressure distribution. They are found in good agreement. A separated flow on the hemisphere-cylinder junction is noticed between Mach numbers 0.8 and 0.9. It is observed from the velocity vector plots that the flow appears to become parallel to the body in the vicinity of the stagnation point of the hemisphere at supersonic Mach number.