Skip to main content
NASA Advanced Supercomputing (NAS) Division World-class modeling, simulation, and supercomputing in support of the NASA mission

High-Fidelity Numerical Simulations of Hypersonic High-Enthalpy Flows

AMS Seminar Series

Speaker: Donatella Passiatore, Stanford University

Presentation

Seminar Slide Deck (PDF-10.8MB)

Abstract

High-enthalpy flows are encountered in many fields related to the aerospace industry. These flows are characterized by the presence of thermodynamic processes having a major influence on the performance of vehicles flying at hypersonic speeds, such as gas dissociation, vibrational relaxation, surface ablation or ionization. The rate at which these different processes evolve is highly dependent on the local thermodynamic conditions and can be of the same order of the natural timescales of the flow, resulting in a nonequilibrium state. The overall picture is even further complicated when turbulence comes into play, because of the wide range of spatial and temporal scales involved. Performing numerical simulations of high-enthalpy turbulent flows is an extremely challenging task that requires the use of appropriate numerical methods, which must be properly designed to meet the simultaneous needs of ensuring sufficient numerical robustness and accurate representation of the flow scales to be solved. In this regard, high-fidelity simulations can further help to provide accurate prediction of the two-way coupling of wall-bounded compressible turbulence and thermochemical processes triggered by the high temperature at stake. Multiple turbulent wall-bounded configurations are investigated in this work, with the final aim of studying the effect of finite-rate chemistry and vibrational relaxation on highly compressible turbulent flows. To conclude, insights on turbulence closure modeling in the context of lower-fidelity simulations of high-enthalpy flows are provided.

Acknowledgments: Luca Sciacovelli, Paola Cinnella, Giuseppe Pascazio

Biography

Photo of Donatella Passiatore
Donatella Passiatore is a postdoctoral researcher in the PSAAP-III project at CTR. She takes part in code developing, validation campaign and simulations of laser-induced ignition in a rocket-module combustor. She has studied Mechanical Engineering at Politecnico di Bari and has attended a Master in Aerodynamics and Aeroacoustics at ENSAM Paris. She holds a Ph.D. in international agreement between Politecnico di Bari and ENSAM Paris. The main topics of her research deal with high fidelity simulations of compressible wall bounded turbulent flows. During her Ph.D., she has focused on high-temperature hypersonic gases and she has performed several direct numerical simulations of flat-plate boundary layers in thermochemical non-equilibrium. More recently, during her former post-doc at Politecnico di Bari, she has started to analyze non-smooth configurations, by investigating the interaction of a shock wave with a hypersonic transitional boundary layer. She has won the GIMC Aimeta award as the best Italian Ph.D. thesis in computational fluid mechanics of 2021 and she has been finalist to the ECCOMAS Ph.D. Award. She has been a candidate for the "Prix Bézier", as best Ph.D. thesis of ENSAM of 2021.