Numerical Simulation of Surface Melting Due to Aerodynamic Heating

Abstract

This paper presents a numerical study on surface melting pattern formation due to aerodynamic heating. When aerodynamic heating is severe enough to melt the surface of a flying body, the interaction between the melted layer and the external flow creates surface patterns. The present study succeeds in reproducing surface melting patterns, and results show the same trend as predicted by theory and experiment. The instability mechanism is mainly governed by surface friction and surface pressure fluctuations. These two factors act as driving forces on the surface. The surface pattern formation is characterized by the amplification factor and the wavelength factor. The results show the same trend as the experiments and the validity of the present analysis has been demonstrated.