Solution of viscous flow over heat shield using structured grid

A numerical analysis has been carried out to investigate turbulent compress ible flowfield over a typical bulbous heat shield of a satellite launch veh icle at zero angle of incidence in the Mach number range of 0.8-2.5 and Rey nolds number range of 20 x 10(6)-25 x 10(6)/m. A nonuniform structured grid is employed for numerical discretization, The closure of the system of equ ations is achieved using a Baldwin-Lomax turbulence model. The numerical pr ocedure employs a multistage Runge-Kutta time-stepping scheme in conjunctio n with a finite volume method, and is made computationally simple and flexi ble by linking adjacent sides of the neighbouring cells ir the calculation of the viscous terms. Comparisons are made with the available experimental data such as schlieren pictures, oil flow patterns, shock stand-off distanc e and surface pressure distribution, and are found in good agreement. (C) E lsevier, Paris.