Supersonic Jet Impingement Navier-Stokes Computations for Vertical Launching System Design Applications

The jet impinging flow structure exhibits such complex natures as shock shell, plate shock, and Mach disk, depending on the flow parameters. The main parameters are the ratio of the jet pressure to the ambient pressure and the distance between the nozzle and the wall. Complexity and unsteadiness of this flow pose quite a numerical challenge for the flux-difference line of schemes, defying easy capture of the plate shock and recirculation zone at the jet center. Such difficulties are overcome and stable solutions are obtained first for jet impingement on a flat plate and then within a vertical launching system, yielding locations, as well as magnitudes of maximum pressure and heat flux for hardware designers. The plate shock and wall pressure beneath are found to oscillate with a frequency between 1 and 10 kHz, depending on the flow condition.