NASA and U.S. based Argonne National Laboratory announced that they will be partnering together. NASA is looking to help boost hypersonic flight research making for shorter travel times with the help of AI-enhanced computer simulations, a press statement reveals.
Hypersonic flight is at speeds of Mach 5 and five times the speed of sound at sea level. Argonne is hoping to bring its supercomputing capacity to the table to help NASA develop its hypersonic testing systems, including experiment aircraft like X-43A scramjet-powered aircraft.
Air friction at hypersonic speed is so strong that it can melt parts typically used on a traditional commercial aircraft.
“Because the chemistry and turbulence interactions are so complex in these engines, scientists have needed to develop advanced combustion models and CFD codes to accurately and efficiently describe the combustion physics,” said Sibendu Som, a co-author of Argonne’s study.
Argonne said it successfully applied its own CDF to NASA’s CDF, called VULCAN-CDF, and that it has shown promising results. All of this will help NASA better understand the effects of Mach 5.
