Separation and Transition on a Cone-Cylinder-Flare: Computational Investigations

Baseflow computation and stability analysis were conducted for hypersonic flow over a cone-cylinder-flare (CCF) geometry for conditions that correspond to the experimental runs carried out in three wind tunnels. Owing to the presence of an attached boundary layer, a separation bubble induced by a shock–boundary-layer interaction, and a reattachment region, the chosen flow configuration is physically rich. The complexity of this flowfield encompasses a combination of convective instabilities developing on the cone, global instabilities in the separation bubble, and shear-layer modes and streaks in the reattachment region. Thus, the selected CCF configuration provides the opportunity for a comprehensive comparison of the currently available methodologies for analyzing boundary-layer instabilities. Various tools are used for the analysis, including global stability codes as well as convective instability analyses based on a local theory, a weakly nonparallel analysis, and tools that are applicable to strongly nonparallel flows. The paper presents a comparison of the convective instability characteristics based on different methodologies, such as linear stability theory, the harmonic form of linearized Navier–Stokes equations, and resolvent analysis. The CCF configuration provided an effective framework for conducting a detailed cross-validation of this type, which had not yet been addressed in existing literature. This document is accompanied by a companion paper that is focused on the experimental aspects of the CCF configuration. Both papers highlight the research activities of the NATO STO Research Task Group AVT-346.