Mesh Adaptation for Accurate Prediction of Surface Heat Flux in Hypersonic Problems

In this paper, we present a mesh adaptation approach for accurate prediction of surface heat flux in hypersonic problems. We build upon our prior work on an automated workflow for in-memory parallel anisotropic mesh adaptation for hypersonic problems. Our workflow combines three simulation components to target such problems. Namely, a hypersonic flow solver; a library for geometry and mesh modification/adaptation; and an adaptation controller. Our approach is component based, in which different simulation components are combined and plugged in a flexible and modular fashion. This paper builds upon our previous work and focuses on accurate computation of the surface heat flux. In particular, we focus on three mesh-related aspects: i) mesh topology on walls including triangular and quad-dominant surface meshes, ii) finer mesh near the shock with high anisotropy, and iii) rapid mesh gradation in the upstream region of the shock. The utility of the current approach is shown by accurate prediction of surface heat flux on two hypersonic flow cases: a hemisphere case and a crew exploration vehicle case. We only consider problems with a steady-state solution, while accurate prediction of surface heat flux for unsteady problems will be considered in the future.