Comprehensive study of a number of important research problems is necessary for the development of new generations of space vehicles, such as high-performance launchers, re-entry vehicles, small satellites, and interplanetary spacecraft, to make giant leaps forward. One of the key topics that need immediate attention is qualitative advancement of current understanding of non-equilibrium flows, which is expected to drastically improve predictive capabilities available to engineers and scientists for the design of new spacecraft. This topic can be tackled only through the combined theoretical, numerical, and experimental research that involves essentially new level of theoretical description and mathematical modeling, the use of the full power of modern computers, the improvement of experimental techniques, and the application of new highly accurate diagnostic tools, which in combination will provide much greater detail of the examined flow.
Achieving a true synergy of theory, modeling, and experiment, which provides fundamental knowledge and becomes the basis for breakthrough space technologies, is the main goal of the project under way at Novosibirsk State University (NSU). The project is supported by the Russian Government under the Resolution No. 220 and involves the founding of the Laboratory of Non-Equilibrium Flows at NSU in March, 2014. The Laboratory is headed by Sergey Gimelshein, an Astronautics Professor of the University of Southern California (USA). The most qualified experts in the field of computational and experimental aerodynamics of non-equilibrium flows from NSU and the Khristianovich Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics SB RAS are involved in the cutting edge research that aims at providing the fundamental ground for the development of breakthrough aerospace technologies. The technologies that include theoretical models, numerical algorithms, software platforms, and experimental approaches, will allow the project participants to establish and develop key physical principles for:
• conventional and advanced propulsion technologies that include chemical and electric thrusters,
• gas and multi-phase flows in microscale in-flight and on-orbit devices,
• prospective spacecraft aerothermodynamics,
• development and control of of instabilities and laminar-to-turbulent transition in hypersonic flows.
The fundamental knowledge in these research areas will be used in the analyses of applied aerospace problems.
Detailed review of current research directions of the Laboratory will be presented in the talk.