Shock-conforming mesh generation for aerodynamic analyses at supersonic regimes

A shock estimation approach is proposed in the context of the generation of shock-conforming meshes for the numerical analysis of inviscid, steady, supersonic and hypersonic flows. For given flow conditions and vehicle’s geometry, the method provides a fast estimation of the shock waves pattern such that grid points can be clustered along the shock waves in a judicious manner. In this way, the uncertainty on mesh generation for shock-dominated flows is reduced and the use of adaptive mesh refinement could be made more efficient or, in some cases, even considered not necessary. The approach is verified against two and three-dimensional supersonic flows for conceptual exemplary geometries like wedges and revolution bodies and more real-world vehicles configurations like rockets and hypersonic aircraft. Qualitative and quantitative assessment of the solution-mesh pair quality is proposed to evaluate the quality of the resulting shock-conforming meshes.