YIC2025

Conjugate heat transfer effects in shock wave/boundary layer interactions

  • Della Posta, Giacomo (Sapienza University of Rome)
  • Fratini, Marco (Sapienza University of Rome)
  • Bernardini, Matteo (Sapienza University of Rome)

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Given the extreme thermal loads encountered by space vehicles and the difficulty to properly estimate them, the effect of conjugate heat transfer (CHT) in high speed flows is a topic of increasing interest (Lewis and Hickey, 2023). Thermal effects in shock wave/boundary layer interactions (SBLIs) due to wall-temperature gradients, for example, are rarely considered (Gaitonde and Adler, 2023). Volpiani et al. (2020) investigated with direct numerical simulations the effects of fixed nonadiabatic wall temperatures on a 2D hypersonic turbulent SBLI, showing marked effects of the thermal state of the wall on typical SBLI features. However, no deep investigation on genuine CHT effects is present in the literature. For this reason, this study investigates CHT effects in SBLIs, leveraging high-fidelity methods that improve the typical aerothermal predictions in high-speed flows. In particular, we coupled large eddy simulations (LESs) with a solid heat solver to analyse the interplay between fluid dynamics and solid heat transfer. The simulations consider the interaction between a hypersonic turbulent boundary layer and an oblique shock wave, comparing cases having bottom walls made of thermally conductive materials typical of aerospace.