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Completed TRL 7 (started at 5, targeting 7)
The primary objective of this Task is to develop FUN3D to a capability able to substantially replace LAURA for executing aerothermal environment simulations for vehicles traveling at hypersonic velocities through planetary atmospheres. This transition of codes will bring to bear all of the advantages of unstructured grid technology for aerothermal environment simulations, especially grid adaptation, error estimation, and overset grid capability. Hyp-FUN3D will be considered Class D software when completed, although certain research elements of the code may be Class E.
Certain critical fundamental capabilities that currently reside in LAURA must be reproduced in FUN3D before it is useful as a production tool. The infrastructure of FUN3D is essentially in place to enable this transition. LAURA and FUN3D already share modules associated with gas chemistry, surface boundary conditions, radiation, and turbulence modeling. Still, there are several key tasks that must be accomplished to enable acceptance of FUN3D by current LAURA users. Each of these activities will be addressed as part of this task and they are summarized in the Milestones. Verification and validation of individual components, as well as overall software performance, are key activities to determine successful completion of Hypersonic FUN3D (HYP-FUN3D) and its readiness for production-level release.
Risk has been mitigated through re-use of modules currently in LAURA where appropriate. Modest challenges associated with conversion of cell-based boundary conditions to node-based in FUN3D and with reformulation of limiters without dependence on structured-grid infrastructure are being addressed. The primary risk to full implementation derives from a continued requirement for high quality, semi-structured (prismatic) grids to achieve acceptable accuracy in simulation of heating in the presence of strong shocks. Offering options in multi-dimensional reconstruction to allow more extensive use of tetrahedral grids and developing options for grid alignment with shocks and/or bow shock fitting are mitigating this risk in HYP-FUN3D. Ultimately, if requirements for initial grid generation quality are not substantially relieved it will be more difficult to convince current users of LAURA and DPLR to switch.
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