Large Eddy Simulations of Supersonic Jet Flows for Aeroacoustic Applications

Abstract: Current design constraints have encouraged the studies of aeroacoustics fields around compressible jet flows. The present work addresses the numerical study of unsteady turbulent jet flows for aeroacoustic analyses of main engine rocket plumes. A novel large eddy simulation (LES) tool is developed in order to reproduce high fidelity results of compressible jet flows which could be used for aeroacoustic studies with the Ffowcs Williams and Hawkings approach. The numerical solver is an upgrade of an existing Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes solver previously developed in the group. The original framework is rewritten in a modern fashion and intensive parallel computation capabilities have been added to the code. The LES formulation is written using the finite difference approach. The energy equation is carefully discretized in order to model the energy equation of the filtered Navier-Stokes formulation. The classical Smagorinsky model is the chosen subgrid scale closure for the present work. Numerical simulations of perfectly expanded jets are performed and compared with the literature in order to validate the new solver. Moreover, speedup and the computational performance of the code are evaluated and discussed. Flow results are used for an initial evaluation of the noise radiated from the rocket plume.