Computations of shock wave propagation with local mesh adaptation

Abstract

The numerical simulation of discontinuous flow phenomena results in high demands related to the used computational grids. A high resolution of the grid is required to resolve shock waves and contact surfaces. This leads, especially for unsteady flows with moving structures, to grids with a large number of points. Local mesh adaptation allows to reduce the computational effort by refining the mesh only in regions where it is necessary. In the present paper a numerical simulation of the shock tunnel flow in the High Enthalpy Shock Tunnel G¨ottingen (HEG) is performed. Local grid adaptation is used to capture shocks and contact discontinuities. Of particular interest for the shock tunnel performance and the investigation of driver gas contamination is the shock reflection process and the interaction between the reflected shock, the boundary layer and the contact surface separating the test gas from the driver gas.