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This is an optional AE590 seminar. Students who want to receive credit for attending will need to scan the QR code at the seminar.
This seminar and reception is open to visiting alumni.
Abstract: Understanding hypersonic flow fields is important for vehicle design for both space exploration and national defense applications. However, computational models for hypersonic flows require coupling a plethora of physics which may not be well understood. In particular, gas phase chemical reactions can affect the energy balance in the gas, and can couple with other flows physics to impact the prediction of surface quantities such as heat flux. This talk will highlight work aimed at improving predictive capabilities for hypersonic flows focused in two areas: first, understanding the fundamental chemical processes occurring in hypersonic flows and constructing models for computational fluid dynamics (CFD) for such processes, and second, coupling these models with CFD calculations to enable high-fidelity simulations of hypersonic flows. In the first area, we make use of ab initio chemistry data to understand at a microscopic level the chemical processes occurring in the gas. Using information and data from microscopic scale simulations, we construct simplified models for application to CFD. In the second area, I will highlight initial work on incorporating finite rate chemistry phenomena to enable scale resolved simulations of hypersonic flowfields using large eddy simulation through the development of a wall model.
Bio: Robyn Macdonald is an Assistant Professor of Aerospace Engineering Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder. Her research interests include gas-phase chemical kinetics, and turbulence and transition modeling for hypersonic flows. Prior to joining CU, she was a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Minnesota for two years working on large eddy simulation of hypersonic flows. She received her B.S. and Ph.D. at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2013 and 2019 respectively. She is the recipient of the Air Force Office of Scientific Research Young Investigator Award and NASA Early Career Faculty Award.