NUMERICAL-SIMULATION OF LOW SUPERSONIC-FLOW AROUND A SPHERE

The controlled equations defined in a physical plane are changed into those in a computational plane with coordinate transformations suitabl e for different Mach number M(infinity). The computational area is lim ited in the body surface and in the vicinities of detached shock wave and sonic line. Thus the area can be greatly cut down when the shock w ave moves away from the body surface as M(infinity) --> 1. Highly accu rate, total variation diminishing (TVD) finite-difference schemes are used to calculate the low supersonic flowfield around a sphere. The st and-off distance, location of sonic line, etc. are well comparable wit h experimental data. The long pending problem concerning a flow passin g a sphere at 1.3 greater-than-or-equal-to M(infinity) > 1 has been se ttled, and some new results on M(infinity) = 1.05 have been presented.