Shock-Fitting for Sonic Boom Calculations

Abstract

In shock capturing schemes of conservation laws, the artificial viscosity, necessary for numerical stability diffuses any discontinuity in the flow field where for example the details of sonic boom signatures of a supersonic aeroplane are of primary interest. This problem can be solved by fitting the discontinuity according to the jump conditions admitted by the weak solution of the governing equations (see Morretti[l] for shock-fitting methods based on Euler equations). The logic is not very complicated for a reasonable shock pattern with the advantage of using a coarse mesh and a higher order scheme in the smooth flow regions.