NUMERICAL STUDY ON UNSTEADY SUPERSONIC CAVITY FLOWS

Yoko TAKAKURA*, Pumio HIGASHINQt, Takeshi YOSHIZAWA*,

Tokyo Noko University
2-24-16 Nakacho, Koganei, Tokyo 184, Japan
and
Satoru OGAWA",
National Aerospace Laboratory
7-44-1 Jindaiji-Higashimachi, Chofu-shi, Tokyo 181, Japan

ABSTRACT the dominant oscillation is the motion of mean flow

Unsteady supersonic internal flows with a cav-
ity are numerically investigated in the present
study; the two-dimensional Navier-Stokes equa-
tions are solved by using the Chakravarthy-Osher
TVD scheme, and a very large eddy simulation is
excuted to capture the unsteady flow field in detail.
Through computations on coarse grids, overview
of the flow patterns has been obtained: one, two
and three vortices have been recognized for the
cavity of L/D = 1,2 and 3, respectively; the ef-
fect of an incident oblique shock wave is to make
a right-handed vortex grow.
Mainly in the case of L/D = 2 with the incident
oblique shock wave, the unsteady solutions have
been investigated in detail both on coarse and fine
grids, and the flow physics on the supersonic cavity
flows have been clarified. On the coarse grid, a pe-
riodic motion has been recognized, where growth
and fall of large-scale vortices occurs through in-
flow and outflow of air for the cavity accompanying
the oscillation of the interface surface (shear layer).
On the fine grid, in addition to the above motion,
another periodic motion with the shorter period
time has been recognized, where small vortices are
generated in the shear layer and disappears by run-
ning against the bow shock wave at the rear wall
of cavity.
The two period times correspond to the lowest
and second lowest frequencies of FFT analysis in
the experiments. From the fact that the lowest
frequency is dominant and that the dominant fre-
quency can be numerically captured even on the
coarse grid which does not resolve the shear layer,
it is concluded that the important factor governing
* Assistant Professor
t Professor
•f Graduate Student
"Head
Copyright ©1996 by the American Institute of Aero-
nautics and Astronautics, Inc. All rights reserved.
rather than the shear layer itself.
1. INTRODUCTION
Studies on cavity flows where vortices and shear
layers interactively exist have been frequently re-
ported, but most of them are limited to low-speed
flows. On high-speed cavity flows a few studies
have been carried out until now, most of which are
experimental ones.
In the case of supersonic flows within a
duct having a rectangular cavity, it is known
experimentally1'2 that there is characteristic struc-
ture of unsteady vortex motion inside a cavity in
conjunction with both oscillating shear layer and
shock waves. Further in the experiments of our
laboratory3 a change in the phenomena inside the
cavity is observed when there is a disturbance such
as an incident oblique shock wave or when the form
of the cavity is altered such as the length to depth
ratio.
Apart from this interest that supersonic inter-
nal flows with a cavity have as a fluid dynamics
problem, research on such flows is also important
for the design of supersonic air breathing engines
which must give stable flow.
The main purpose of this study is to clarify
by means of numerical simulation the physical
mechanics of supersonic flow-field about a two-
dimensional rectangular cavity including behavior
of the vortex, the oscillations of the shear layer,
and shock motion. A very large eddy simulation4'5
with the sub-grid scale viscosity improved for com-
pressible flows6 is carried out on the large-scale
parallel computer system, NWT7, to capture these
unsteady phenomena. We have already discussed
the effect of the length to depth ratio of the cavity
in reference 7. The predominant aspect of this re-
search is an understanding of the unsteady nature
on the cavity flow.

American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics