Numerical study of transient flow in a full-size reflected shock tunnel

The aim of this paper is to develop a CFD solver that used to simulate the transient flow phenomena in a reflected shock tunnel. The transient flow ph enomena in a shock tunnel include the reflected shock/boundary layer intera ction and the starting process of nozzle flow that can affect the duration of test flow in actual conditions. To numerically simulate these transient flow features, a full-size, axisymmetric reflected shock tunnel model is us ed. The governing equations are a full Navier-Stokes equation, a species eq uation and a simplified polynomial correlation to simulate the real gas eff ects. The numerical code is developed based on the finite volume method cou pled with the upwind Roe's scheme and the total variation diminishing (TVD) method. To increase the calculation efficiency, a multi-block and multi-me sh grid generation technique is employed in a huge computational domain. Th e present computational results have not only confirmed the theoretical cha racteristics of a shock tube, but have also qualitatively presented the phe nomena of reflected shock/boundary layer interaction and the starting proce ss of nozzle flow. This numerical code is a useful tool to demonstrate the actual flow phenomena and to assist the design of experiments.