High-Speed Shock/Droplet Aerobreakup Using a Sharp Interface Method

High-speed droplet aerobreakup has been the focus of numerous experimental and numerical investigations due to its importance in hypersonic vehicle development. This paper presents a preliminary mesh convergence study for fully 3D droplet aerobreakup simulations behind a normal shock at Mach numbers of 5.12 and 3.03 using the open-source multiphase compressible flow solver from the NGA2 CFD framework (https://github.com/desjardi/NGA2). Primary droplet mass and displacement results from simulation data are compared to previously published experimental and numerical results, as well as to previously developed empirical models.