FURI | Spring 2020

Numerical Characterization of Pseudoshock Oscillatory Behavior

This work utilizes the ANSYS Fluent Computational Fluid Dynamics solver to characterize the unsteady motion of the “shock-train” forming in the isolator portion of a scramjet combustion system. Characterization of the motion is useful as it helps designers understand complicated flow physics within the isolator and avoid shock disgorgement, or “unstart”, which brings about dangerous instability in high-speed flight. Shock-train structures responding to modulated back pressures are simulated and their unsteady characteristics as well as surface pressure dynamics are examined.