Three dimensional supersonic ow analysis over a satellite vehicle launcher

The ever-widening applications of numerical calculations leads to a variety of new numerical methods, which are di erent in their solution algorithms as well as in the discretization of the governing equations. Despite this development, much work still remains in their improvement towards a fast, accurate and stable convergence. This work shows a numerical method for the solution of compressible and almost incompressible uid ows using a nite volume, explicit Runge-Kutta multistage scheme, with central spatial discretization in combination with multigrid and preconditioning. Numerical tests are carried out for a vehicle launcher for Mach-number 3.75 and 2.0 using the Euler equations. c © 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.