Successes of Computational Science with Application to Turbulent Flows

M. Pino Martin

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering , Princeton University

The lack of understanding of turbulent hypersonic flows and the absence of accurate databases prevent the development of good turbulence models. The models that are used today in engineering production codes do not represent the effects of high compressibility and temperature levels in the turbulent regime.  Applications that are hampered by this lack of understanding include reusable launch vehicles, high-speed missile interceptors, hypersonic cruise vehicles, and reentry vehicles.  With the increased interest in space exploration, the necessity for affordably accessing space to maintain telecommunication and space technologies, and the increased interest in atmospheric hypersonic flight, we need accurate techniques to predict and understand the flow phenomena in the turbulence regime over a wide range of conditions.

In the last decade, progress in high-performance computing and numerical algorithms has enabled numerical techniques to simulate turbulent flows.  In addition, new visualization and post-processing techniques allow us to analyze the data in greater detail.   In this talk, I will discuss the research that we are conducting in the CROCCO Laboratory at Princeton University in the development of basic knowledge and predictive capabilities for turbulent flows, including theory, simulation, and collaboration with experimentalists to tackle problems that were previously inaccessible.