This study aims to numerically simulate the wind tunnel results for hypersonic flow over a circular cone of semi-apex angle of 10 degrees yawed from 0° to 20° using the commercial computational fluid dynamics software ANSYS Fluent. The ANSYS workbench is used to create the 10° semi-apex circular cone with a shock aligned structured mesh of 3.05 million cells surrounding the cone. Simulation boundary conditions for pressure and temperature in the far field correspond to Tracy’s wind tunnel experiment at Cal Tech. The six simulations cases are conducted for yaw angles of 0, 8, 12, 16, 20 and 24 degrees. The unsteady Reynolds-Averaged compressible Navier-Stokes solver with Spalart-Allmaras (SA) turbulence model is employed. The upstream flow Mach number is M = 8 and Reynolds number is Reꝏ = 4.2 x105 based on cone generator length. The maximum variation in static pressure computations around the cone is 7% of the experimental values and the maximum variation in heat transfer computations is within 12% of the experimental values; the maximum difference between the computations and experiment occurs at the leeward meridian of the cone. By further refinement of the mesh and using other turbulence models, it is possible that computational accuracy of the simulations may be further improved; however it requires additional investigation. Nevertheless the present simulations demonstrate that CFD can be employed with sufficient accuracy to compute the hypersonic flows about space vehicles with fully turbulent flow.
","abstract_html":"<p>This study aims to numerically simulate the wind tunnel results for hypersonic flow over a circular cone of semi-apex angle of 10 degrees yawed from 0° to 20° using the commercial computational fluid dynamics software ANSYS Fluent. The ANSYS workbench is used to create the 10° semi-apex circular cone with a shock aligned structured mesh of 3.05 million cells surrounding the cone. Simulation boundary conditions for pressure and temperature in the far field correspond to Tracy’s wind tunnel experiment at Cal Tech. The six simulations cases are conducted for yaw angles of 0, 8, 12, 16, 20 and 24 degrees. The unsteady Reynolds-Averaged compressible Navier-Stokes solver with Spalart-Allmaras (SA) turbulence model is employed. The upstream flow Mach number is M = 8 and Reynolds number is Reꝏ = 4.2 x10<sup>5</sup> based on cone generator length. The maximum variation in static pressure computations around the cone is 7% of the experimental values and the maximum variation in heat transfer computations is within 12% of the experimental values; the maximum difference between the computations and experiment occurs at the leeward meridian of the cone. By further refinement of the mesh and using other turbulence models, it is possible that computational accuracy of the simulations may be further improved; however it requires additional investigation. Nevertheless the present simulations demonstrate that CFD can be employed with sufficient accuracy to compute the hypersonic flows about space vehicles with fully turbulent flow.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Cecil, Julian"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Master of Science (MS)","degree_level":"Thesis","degree_discipline":"Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Ramesh K. Agarwal","David A. Peters Swami Karunamoorthy"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2018,"date_issued":"2018-05-07T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2018-05-07T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T06:13:55Z","subjects":["hypersonic","CFD","cone","aerodynamics","simulation","Aerodynamics and Fluid Mechanics","Engineering"],"languages":["English (en)"],"rights":["I have not registered my thesis with the U.S. Copyright Office, and do not intend to."],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/eng_etds/341"],"render_values":[{"text":"https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/eng_etds/341","href":"https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/eng_etds/341","code":true}]}]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://doi.org/10.7936/K7NG4Q22","outbound_label":"DOI","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Ramesh K. 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Peters Swami Karunamoorthy"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Cecil, Julian"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2018-11-06T08:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science","McKelvey School of Engineering"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Science (MS)"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["hypersonic","CFD","cone","aerodynamics","simulation","Aerodynamics and Fluid Mechanics","Engineering"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["English (en)"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["I have not registered my thesis with the U.S. Copyright Office, and do not intend to."]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://doi.org/10.7936/K7NG4Q22","https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/eng_etds/341"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["Permanent URL: https://doi.org/10.7936/K7NG4Q22"]},{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["This study aims to numerically simulate the wind tunnel results for hypersonic flow over a circular cone of semi-apex angle of 10 degrees yawed from 0° to 20° using the commercial computational fluid dynamics software ANSYS Fluent. The ANSYS workbench is used to create the 10° semi-apex circular cone with a shock aligned structured mesh of 3.05 million cells surrounding the cone. Simulation boundary conditions for pressure and temperature in the far field correspond to Tracy’s wind tunnel experiment at Cal Tech. The six simulations cases are conducted for yaw angles of 0, 8, 12, 16, 20 and 24 degrees. The unsteady Reynolds-Averaged compressible Navier-Stokes solver with Spalart-Allmaras (SA) turbulence model is employed. The upstream flow Mach number is M = 8 and Reynolds number is Reꝏ = 4.2 x105 based on cone generator length. The maximum variation in static pressure computations around the cone is 7% of the experimental values and the maximum variation in heat transfer computations is within 12% of the experimental values; the maximum difference between the computations and experiment occurs at the leeward meridian of the cone. By further refinement of the mesh and using other turbulence models, it is possible that computational accuracy of the simulations may be further improved; however it requires additional investigation. Nevertheless the present simulations demonstrate that CFD can be employed with sufficient accuracy to compute the hypersonic flows about space vehicles with fully turbulent flow.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Validation of CFD Simulations for Hypersonic Flow Over a Yawed Cone"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Ramesh K. Agarwal","David A. Peters Swami Karunamoorthy"],"dc:creator":["Cecil, Julian"],"dc:date.available":["2018-11-06T08:00:00Z"],"dc:description":["Permanent URL: https://doi.org/10.7936/K7NG4Q22"],"dc:description.abstract":["This study aims to numerically simulate the wind tunnel results for hypersonic flow over a circular cone of semi-apex angle of 10 degrees yawed from 0° to 20° using the commercial computational fluid dynamics software ANSYS Fluent. The ANSYS workbench is used to create the 10° semi-apex circular cone with a shock aligned structured mesh of 3.05 million cells surrounding the cone. Simulation boundary conditions for pressure and temperature in the far field correspond to Tracy’s wind tunnel experiment at Cal Tech. The six simulations cases are conducted for yaw angles of 0, 8, 12, 16, 20 and 24 degrees. The unsteady Reynolds-Averaged compressible Navier-Stokes solver with Spalart-Allmaras (SA) turbulence model is employed. The upstream flow Mach number is M = 8 and Reynolds number is Reꝏ = 4.2 x105 based on cone generator length. The maximum variation in static pressure computations around the cone is 7% of the experimental values and the maximum variation in heat transfer computations is within 12% of the experimental values; the maximum difference between the computations and experiment occurs at the leeward meridian of the cone. By further refinement of the mesh and using other turbulence models, it is possible that computational accuracy of the simulations may be further improved; however it requires additional investigation. Nevertheless the present simulations demonstrate that CFD can be employed with sufficient accuracy to compute the hypersonic flows about space vehicles with fully turbulent flow.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://doi.org/10.7936/K7NG4Q22","https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/eng_etds/341"],"dc:language":["English (en)"],"dc:rights":["I have not registered my thesis with the U.S. Copyright Office, and do not intend to."],"dc:subject":["hypersonic","CFD","cone","aerodynamics","simulation","Aerodynamics and Fluid Mechanics","Engineering"],"dc:title":["Validation of CFD Simulations for Hypersonic Flow Over a Yawed Cone"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science","McKelvey School of Engineering"],"thesis:degree_level":["Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master of Science (MS)"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T06:13:55Z"}