IMENS Flowfield Tropology changes due to Fluid-Structure Interaction in Hypersonic Flow using ANSYS and TAU

The present investigation is aimed to evaluate the improvement of heat flux predictions for hypersonic vehicles by coupled simulation of fluid mechanics and structure. Radiation equilibrium simulations with an unstructured fluid solver (TAU) as well as thermal coupled solutions with a structural solver (ANSYS) have been performed for a wedge compression corner both for 2D and 3D. It turned out that there is a very strong 3D effect in the flow field that changes the flow topology completely. In addition, heat conduction inside the structure leads to a different temperature distribution reducing heat peaks at exposed parts significantly. It can be shown that the physics is qualitatively well predicted by the numerical tool and the results show good agreement with the experimental data, gained in the arc heated facility L3K