Evaluation of Four Different Turbulence Models for Numerical Simulation of Supersonic Flow over a Blunt Nose Equipped with a Spike

Nowadays, improving the aerodynamic performance of supersonic flying vehicles in order to reduce drag forces and increase in heat transfer coefficient is an interesting matter for researchers. Many of the supersonic vehicles use blunt nose to reduce heat generations, while these noses cause higher drag forces. Equipping the nose with spikes is a technique to reduce the drag of blunt noses. Spikes also increase their heat transfer rate. The accuracy and the validity of RANS based numerical simulations of turbulent flow over these bodies depend directly on the capabilities of the turbulence models used. This paper presents numerical simulation of supersonic flow over a blunt nose equipped with a spike, using four different turbulence models, namely: one-equation turbulence model of Spalart-Almaras and two-equation turbulence models of k-ε, k-ω and k-ω-SST. We wanted to find the appropriate turbulence model for this type of flows. Air flow Mach number and angle of attack were considered 6 and zero, respectively. The axi-symmetric, compressible and steady RANS equations are solved numerically. In spite of initial expectations, comparison of numerical results with experimental data showed that Spalart-Almamras has more consistency with experiment.