Effect of Mach number and plate thickness on the flow field and heat transfer characteristics of supersonic turbulent flow over a flat plate at different thermal boundary conditions

Conjugate heat transfer analysis of supersonic turbulent flow over a finite thickness flat plate is studied numerically. The flow field is modeled by employing the Favre averaged Navier-Stokes (FANS) equations. Turbulence is modeled with the Menter's shear-stress-transport (SST) k-omega model. The comparison of NCHT (non-conjugate heat transfer) and CHT (conjugate heat transfer) analysis shows that the interface temperature and fluid temperature variation for the CHT analysis are lower compared to the NCHT analysis. The results indicate that the interface temperature is significantly increased for the low thermal conductivity plate material, due to the reduced rate of heat transfer. The effect of plate thickness on the flow field temperature variation is negligible. However, it is observed that the maximum interface temperature (T-i,T- max) increases with the increase in plate thickness. The values of maximum interface temperature difference between the 5 mm and 2 mm thick Steel-1006 plates at Mach numbers 2, 4, and 5 in non-dimensional (non-dimensionalized with free-stream temperature) form are 0.05594, 0.129, and 0.1816 respectively for the isothermal boundary condition. Results indicate that for Mach 2, the heated wall thermal boundary conditions acts like heat source, leading to the higher interface temperature, whereas for Mach 4, and 5 the heated wall thermal boundary conditions acts like heat sink, thus lowering the interface temperature. The results show that for NCHT analysis the leading edge shock strength, and mean pressure along the wall increases with an increase in Mach number. The non-conjugate results (flow and heat transfer characteristics) of the present numerical study is validated with the direct numerical simulation (DNS) results available in the literature. (C) 2021 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

Numerical study of conjugate heat transfer in supersonic turbulent flow over a flat plate with finite thickness shows lower interface temperature and fluid temperature variation compared to non-conjugate heat transfer analysis. Results indicate significant increase in interface temperature for low thermal conductivity plate materials, and negligible effect of plate thickness on flow field temperature variation. Additionally, the maximum interface temperature increases with plate thickness.