Investigation of the Effects of Length to Depth Ratio on Open Supersonic Cavities Using CFD and Proper Orthogonal Decomposition

Simulations of supersonic turbulent flow over an open rectangular cavity are performed to observe the effects of length to depth ratio (L/D) of the cavity on the flow structure. Two-dimensional compressible time-dependent Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations with k-omega turbulence model are solved. A reduced order modeling approach, Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) method, is used to further analyze the flow. Results are obtained for cavities with several L/D ratios at a Mach number of 1.5. Mostly, sound pressure levels (SPL) are used for comparison. After a reduced order modeling approach, the number of modes necessary to represent the systems is observed for each case. The necessary minimum number of modes to define the system increases as the flow becomes more complex with the increase in the L/D ratio. This study provides a basis for the control of flow over supersonic open cavities by providing a reduced order model for flow control, and it also gives an insight to cavity flow physics by comparing several simulation results with different length to depth ratios.