Simulation of crossflow instability on a supersonic highly swept wing

A direct numerical simulation (DNS) algorithm has been developed for use in the investigation of crossflow instability on supersonic swept wings, an a pplication of potential relevance to the design of the High-Speed Civil Tra nsport (HSCT). The fully explicit algorithm exploits high-order compact-dif ference and spectral-collocation methods to solve the compressible Navier-S tokes equations in body-fitted coordinates. The method is applied to the in vestigation of stationary crossflow instability on an infinitely long 77-de gree swept wing in Mach 3.5 flow. The results of the DNS are compared with the predictions of linear stability theory (LST) and linear parabolized sta bility equation (PSE) methodology. In general, the independently conducted DNS and PSE investigations agree closely in terms of the growth rate, the s tructure, and the orientation angle of the predicted stationary crossflow i nstability. Although further study is warranted for the case of large-ampli tude (nonlinear) disturbances, the close agreement between the methods offe rs preliminary validation of both the DNS and PSE approaches for this appli cation. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.