SU2-COOL: Open-source framework for non-ideal compressible fluid dynamics

Abstract

We present a fully open-source framework for the numerical simulation of Non-Ideal Compressible Fluid Dynamics (NICFD). The open-source Computational Fluid Dynamics suite SU2 is coupled to the open-source thermophysical library CoolProp, which includes state-of-the-art thermodynamic models of numerous pure fluids and mixtures relevant to applications. Accurate thermodynamic models are needed due to non-ideal operating conditions in which the fluid thermodynamics cannot be described by the simple ideal-gas law ($Pv=RT$). The coupling interface implements new C++ classes, which allow the automatic exchange of information between SU2 and CoolProp, and it is made directly available as an additional module integrated into the open-source SU2 suite. To assess the performance of the NICFD simulation framework, we present three test cases: a nozzle flow exhibiting non-ideal thermodynamics effects, a nozzle flow with non-monotone Mach number variation, a representative non-ideal gasdynamics effect, and a non-classical rarefaction oblique shock over a wedge. Results are verified against available experiment data and solutions obtained with different implementations of non-ideal thermodynamics in SU2. Performance of the new framework is assessed on user-friendliness, scalability, solution accuracy, and computational efficiency.