Hypersonic Transition and Turbulence with Non-Equilibrium Thermochemistry

The objective of the completed MURI project was to develop various fundamental building blocks required for assembling a reliable predictive capability for hypersonic turbulent flows in Non-Thermochemical-Equilibriiun (NTE) state. A coordinated three-pronged approach addressing fundamental characterization, physics comprehension and computational prediction of hypersonic NTE turbulent flows has been completed. The main contributions from the completed works are: (1) development of a modular theoretical and computational framework for addressing NTE turbulence: (2) identification of the fundamental physical mechanisms that render NTE mrbulence different from standard incompressible turbulence: (3) compilation of experimental and numerical databases in homogeneous and canonical flows that highlight nonequilibrimn and compressibility effects: (4) proposal of closure models at various degree of sophistication: (4) development of new laser diagnostic techniques developed specifically for characterization of hypersonic NTE mrbulence; and (6) preliminary integration of numerical methods and mrbulence models for efficient CFD simulations. Overall, the completed work should result in crucial improvement in the predictive capabilities.