Numerical simulations play an important role in the development and testing of high-speed propulsion devices, such as ramjets and scramjets. With significant interest in Digital Engineering as a means to reduce cost and development cycle time, the importance of high-quality and accurate numerical simulations is increasing. Simulations in this regime are, however, challenging due to the extreme conditions and the coupling of many complex physical processes such as shock waves, compressible turbulence, combustion and multi-phase effects. Advancements needed include, but are not limited to: 1) novel approaches to extract flow physics from direct numerical simulation (DNS) and large-eddy simulation (LES); 2) improved modeling of turbulence and turbulent combustion for both LES and Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) modeling approaches; 3) improved numerical schemes for robustly resolving turbulence; 4) algorithms for reducing the cost of hydrocarbon chemistry; 5) improved modeling of multi-phase flow for both LES and RANS; 6) novel applications of numerical simulations to complement and enhance experimental data to improve fundamental understanding of high-speed combustion. Any of these topics may also involve the application of uncertainty quantification, physics-informed machine learning, and/or data assimilation.

 

J. Urzay, “Supersonic combustion in air-breathing propulsion systems for hypersonic flight,” Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics, Vol. 50, 2018, pp. 593-627.

C. Fureby, “Subgrid Models, Reaction Mechanisms, and Combustion Models in Large-Eddy Simulation of Supersonic Combustion,” AIAA Journal, Vol. 59, No. 1, 2020, pp. 215-227.

key words

combustion; turbulence; hypersonic; supersonic; high-speed; ramjet; scramjet; modeling; machine learning; data assimilation

Citizenship:  Open to U.S. citizens

Level:  Open to Postdoctoral and Senior applicants