Numerical Model of a Supersonic Wind Tunnel for Didactic use in Aerospace Engineering at the National University of la Plata

Abstract

The learning of compressible gas dynamics, in particular supersonic flows, introduces new concepts radically different from those of the incompressible flows with which the study of Fluid Mechanics begins. Supersonic flows in conduits behave in the opposite way to subsonic flows in the face of changes in area. New phenomena such as shock waves appeared, non-existent in subsonic flow. The supersonic wind tunnel is the right laboratory tool for hands-on teaching of this topic. In the Department of Aerospace Engineering of the National University of La Plata, a supersonic suction tunnel was designed and built, which allows visualizations by means of a Schlieren optical system and local pressure measurements. To expand and complement the teaching of supersonic flow, a threedimensional numerical model of the same tunnel was developed, implemented in the ANSYS Fluent software, which allows greater versatility in the operating conditions, as well as a visualization of the variables of interest such as the number of Mach, pressures and normal and oblique shock waves in the different operating conditions and for different obstacles in the flow. model presented in this work.