Supersonic and hypersonic non-equilibrium flow control using laser energy deposition

In this work we present applications of laser energy deposition for flow control in nonequilibrium plasmas. The system of chemically reactive Navier-Stokes equations describes the hydrodynamics, and non-equilibrium effects are accounted for by means of a two-temperature model for heavy-particles and free-electrons. The non-equilibrium laser radiation is modeled with a kinetic approach for the photons (radiative transfer equation formulation). In the current framework inverse Bremsstrahlung, breakdown chemical kinetics and shock wave dynamics are taken into account self-consistently. Simulations were conducted in supersonic/hypersonic air flow over a spherical blunt body and a double cone for a study on the control of aerodynamic forces and shock-wave/boundary-layer interaction, respectively. Simulations have been conducted also for a ramjet/scramjet combustion chamber configuration for ignition of air-hydrogen mixture. Results confirm that the thermal spot can be used effectively for controlling the shock structures in complex flows, and preliminary investigation also indicates that the laser energy deposition is promising for enhancing reaction kinetics, as seen in experiments. Moreover, the results also prove that the physics-based self-consistent computational framework is robust and able to handle complex multi-physics problems for predictive applications without the assistance of tuning parameter and/or ad-hoc simplifying assumptions inferred from the experiments.