Numerical simulation of supersonic separating-reattaching flow through RANS

Abstract

The present work reports turbulent supersonic flow subjected to separation-reattachment computed through Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) based models. The modified density based solver, rhoCentralFoam in OpenFOAM framework, is employed for the flow simulation over a backward facing step and a rectangular cavity. The predictions by the different RANS models show good agreement with the empirical and numerical observations. Qualitatively, mean flow features such as boundary layer separation, re-circulation, and expansion fan and re-attachment shock are predicted with acceptable accuracy; while the quantitative assessment reveals the limitation of different models.