Augmented Burnett-Equation Solutions over Axisymmetric Blunt Bodies in Hypersonic Flow

We obtained augmented Burnett-equation solutions and conducted some preliminary studies on the extent to which the Burnett equations can be used in estimating the departure from the NavierStokes model for hypersonic flow over axisymmetric blunt bodies. The augmented Burnett equation solutions were restricted to the flow inside the bow shock in the stagnation region because of the uncertainty of boundary conditions. On one hand, the present results partly confirm the past observation that the Burnett equations can only make insignificant improvement over the Navier-Stokes equations when the latter are adequate, but the Burnett equations fail when the NavierStokes equations become inadequate. On the other hand, though both the NavierStokes and Burnett equations are inaccurate for flow inside a strong shock, to some extent the augmented Burnett solutions do seem to agree better with results obtained by the direct simulation Monte Carlo technique than the Navier-Stokes solutions do. Further studies are needed on the validity and significance of the augmented Burnett solutions for such flowfields.