Particle and continuum computations of hypersonic flow over sharp and blunted cones

An extensive numerical study of hypersonic flow around axisymmetric cones is conducted using particle and continuum methods. A number of accuracy issues are carefully investigated for the particle method, including grid sensitivity, time convergence and accommodation coefficient. Flow field comparisons between the particle and continuum methods are provided. The comparisons of computational solutions and experimental data along the cone surface are also presented. The particle simulations provide good agreement with the measured data. It is shown that the temperature used to evaluate the thermal conductivity in the heat transfer expression for the continuum method has a large effect on the prediction of heat transfer rate.