Hypersonic Vehicle Analyses: The Needs and Challenges of Multidisciplinary Simulations

To build models of hypersonic vehicles and understand the coupling between systems, the first step is modeling the hypersonic flow. This is essential as it forms the basis for everything else, such as special materials and structures. In our work, we use a hypersonic flow code called LeMANS, which solves the three-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations and includes nonequilibrium thermochemistry, vibrational energy relaxation, chemical reactions, and plasma considerations. The code is efficient on high-performance computing systems and is coupled with surface chemistry for material response.

LeMANS has been benchmarked and validated against other similar codes using laboratory and flight data, providing a solid foundation for our analysis. This chart illustrates the range of activities involved in developing a reliable hypersonic code for analysis and design.