Thermochemical non-equilibrium effects on aerothermodynamic prediction of laminar double-cone flow

Hypersonic non-equilibrium air flows over a laminar double-cone configuration are numerically investigated. In this paper, the effects of thermochemical non-equilibrium gas, chemical non-equilibrium gas, and thermally perfect gas models on the prediction of the wall-surface heat transfer and pressure are investigated. Comparing to the high-enthalpy experimental data, the results of simulations indicate that all models have a similar tendency, and underpredict the length of the separation region, while the heat transfer peaks are overpredicted. The experimental data for surface pressure and heat transfer is insensitive to the choice of the thermally perfect gas model and non-equilibrium thermochemistry models. Quantitatively, the thermochemical non-equilibrium gas and thermally perfect gas models predict the same separation and reattachment locations within the uncertainty in the simulation, but the chemical non-equilibrium gas model predicts a smaller separation region.