The Computational Hypersonics Research Lab is developing computational fluid dynamics methods and simulation tools for the design and analysis of future hypersonic flight systems. Prof. Graham Candler leads the laboratory, in close collaboration with research teams lead by Prof. Joseph Nichols and Prof. Thomas Schwartzentruber at the University of Minnesota. The research is supported by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the Office of Naval Research, the Air Force Research Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, NASA, and others.
The lab's primary mission is to develop physics-based models and high-fidelity numerical methods to predict the operation of hypersonic flight vehicles and to discover new hypersonic flow physics. Most research uses US3D, which is a highly parallel, implicit, unstructured grid code designed for the simulation of complex-geometry hypersonic flow fields. Simulations can be performed with conventional second-order upwind numerical methods and high-order, low-dissipation methods. This enables rapid solutions for steady-state problems, and the simulation of more complex flows that require the resolution of fine-scale features or unsteady effects. US3D can be used to simulate full-vehicle configurations to predict aerodynamics and aero-heating, but it can also be used in large-eddy simulation (LES) or direct numerical simulation (DNS) mode to resolve complicated flow physics. A complete set of finite-rate chemical kinetics models for high-temperature air are included, and novel low-order manifold approaches are being developed for the simulation of high-speed scramjet combustor flows. Extremely large grids in excess of 1 billion elements are supported.
At the University of Minnesota, we are using next-generation simulation methods to advance the field of hypersonic flight.
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