Shock Wave in a Supersonic Airflow: Transient Solver

Shock Wave in a Supersonic Airflow with Transient Solver, ANSYS Fluent CFD Simulation Training

Description

This project simulates supersonic airflow encountering a two-way oblique airfoil barrier passing through a channel, investigating the resulting fluid behavior and the formation of a shock wave phenomenon using ANSYS Fluent.

The airflow surrounding the obstacles and channel is set at a temperature of 129.46 K and a Mach number of 2.49, with flow direction assumed generally uniform. Mach number — a non-dimensional ratio of fluid velocity to the local speed of sound — is a critical parameter whenever flow velocity approaches or exceeds the speed of sound, with aerospace applications representing one of its most significant use cases. The 3D geometry was designed in Design Modeler and meshed in ANSYS Meshing using an unstructured mesh totaling 4,466,857 elements.

Methodology

A Density-Based solver was used to capture the compressible nature of the flow, appropriate given the high Mach number and strongly compressible behavior characteristic of shock phenomena. The simulation was run under unsteady (transient) conditions to capture the shock formation process over time.

Conclusion

Results include 2D and 3D contours of pressure, temperature, velocity, density, and Mach number, along with 2D and 3D pathlines — all extracted at the final second of the unsteady simulation. The results confirm well-formed shock structures, occurring where the flow collides with the sharp points of the geometry, producing abrupt changes in Mach number. Pressure variations are clearly evident throughout the shock formation regions in the resulting contours.