Near- and Far- Field Sonic-Boom Analysis Using a Lattice-Boltzmann Flow Solver

Abstract

This paper investigates the capability of an industrial multi-purpose flow solver, SIMULIA PowerFLOW®, based on the Lattice-Boltzmann method, to predict the sonic boom characteristics of the JAXA Wing-Body JWB configuration, presented at the Second AIAA Sonic Boom Prediction Workshop, at a free-stream Mach number of 1.6. The near field is initially computed using a three-dimensional supersonic Lattice–Boltzmann scheme. The pressure signature is extracted on the vehicle symmetry plane at two near-field stations, namely (H/L)_1 and (H/L)_3, located at distances equal to 0.85 and 2.55 times the body length from the configuration, respectively. Successively, the computed (H/L)_1 near-field signature is propagated through a stratified atmosphere using the NASA PCBoom code, based on a previously validated propagation setup. At ground level, key parameters, including peak overpressure, pressure rise time, and duration, are analyzed alongside psychoacoustic metrics such as ASEL and PL to assess the accuracy of the propagated signatures. The results provide a consistent near-to-far field assessment for predicting sonic booms using a Lattice–Boltzmann flow solver.