Expansion Fan
Application ID: 42841
An important and interesting phenomenon with supersonic flows are expansion fans, which take place when the flow encounters a convex or expansion corner. The direction of the flow changes smoothly across the fan, while the Mach number increases.
This 2D example models an expansion fan where the flow is inviscid, and the results are compared with inviscid compressible flow theory. An adaptive mesh is used to resolve the expansion region more finely than the rest of the modeling domain.
Results correlate well with those conducted using inviscid compressible flow theory.
This model example illustrates applications of this type that would nominally be built using the following products:
however, additional products may be required to completely define and model it. Furthermore, this example may also be defined and modeled using components from the following product combinations:
The combination of COMSOL® products required to model your application depends on several factors and may include boundary conditions, material properties, physics interfaces, and part libraries. Particular functionality may be common to several products. To determine the right combination of products for your modeling needs, review the Specification Chart and make use of a free evaluation license. The COMSOL Sales and Support teams are available for answering any questions you may have regarding this.