Dominik James M.Sc.

Research

Our research focuses on the simulation of high-enthalpy flows such as the atmospheric reentry of a hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV). The research is conducted in close collaboration with IABG mbH, a German engineering firm in the automotive, aerospace, defense and security sector.

Our aim is to develop, implement, and use computational fluid mechanics tools to estimate aerothermodynamic loads on a HGV. Lift and drag coefficients are needed to analyze performance characteristics of HGVs. Surface heat flux is important for determining possible designs and trajectories. Surface temperature can be used to estimate an IR signature, and radiation calculations in the gas phase can improve this estimation. Recently, we applied a reverse photon Monte Carlo method to hypersonic flow as experienced during Earth reentry to compute the radiation signature as seen from a sensor many kilometers away from the reentry object.

In 2022, we have generated equilibrium solutions for a generic 3D hypersonic glide vehicle at various inflow conditions and angles of attack. In addition, radiation calculations for the FIRE II capsule have been completed. In 2023 we presented first results of thermo-chemical nonequilibrium solutions. In 2024, we presented radiation calculations for the divergent heat flux in the gas phase; and estimated the radiation signature of an object as seen from a sensor.

Generic HGV Geometry	Comparison of 0 and 20 degree angle of attack - temperature profile with streamlines and Mach lines	Radiation heat flux of FIRE II

Tools and Methods

KEGS:

• Coupled second-order boundary-layer/ Euler method written in Fortran
• 2D (nonequilibrium) and 3D (only equilibrium)
• Perfect gas; equilibrium gas; 5-species 17-reaction (Park 1985) chemical or thermo-chemical (2-temperature) nonequilibrium gas
• Automatic mesh generation for flow field from given surface mesh of an object
• Transformation onto curvilinear coordinate system for computation
• Due to the numerical efficiency (short run times) very suitable to analyze envelopes or do design work
• Validated on publicly available data on civilian applications (FIRE II, quarter-inch sphere, ...)
• Euler: Automatic bow shock-fitting, conditions after shock are computed with Rankine-Hugoniot equations
• Euler: Explicit 2nd-order Runge-Kutta time integration
• Euler: Explicit 3rd-order upwind-biased spatial discretization with flux vector splitting (finite difference method)
• Boundary Layer: Laminar and turbulent flows with predefined transition location in boundary layer

Photon Monte Carlo Method:

• 3D forward Photon Monte-Carlo method to compute divergent heat flux in the flow field (StaRad, see Jannis' dissertation)
• 2D-axisymmetric forward and backward Photon Monte-Carlo method; forward: computes divergent heat flux in flow field; backward: computes radiation signature as seen from a sensor many kilometers away

Hyperparameter Optimization: Bayesian optimization algorithm to optimize film cooling trench designs in collaboration with Lukas Fischer. Here is a link to our paper in the International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer.

Software: Tecplot, ICEM, Git, CATIA, ParaView, Slurm, Visual Studio, Eclipse, Anaconda, GIMP and more.

Languages: Mostly Fortran, Python, and MATLAB.

Current Work

Validation of thermal nonequilibrium implementation. Radiation calculations for gas phase and radiation signature computations.

Conferences and Workshops

• Participant at: International Workshop of Shock Tube Technology; Oxford, UK; 2024.
• D. James, Ch. Mundt; "Sensor-based Radiation Signature Computations in Hypersonic Flow using a Reverse Photon Monte Carlo Method"; RHTG-10 workshop; Oxford, UK; 2024.
• D. James, Ch. Mundt; "Radiation Computations and Ionisation Effects for Hypersonic Flow in Thermo-Chemical Nonequilibrium"; HiSST 2024 3rd International Conference on High-Speed Vehicle Science and Technology; Busan, Korea; 2024. (abstract accepted)
• D. James, Ch. Mundt; "Aerodynamic Loads of Thermo-Chemical Nonequilibrium Hypersonic Flow Around a Generic HGV"; 3AF IAMD15 international conference on Integrated Air and Missile Defence; Porto, Portugal; 2023.
• Ch. Mundt, D. James; "Photon Monte Carlo Transport Computation For Atmospheric (Re-)Entry"; RHTG-9 workshop; Santa Maria, Azores, Portugal; 2022.
• D. Hauger, Ch . Mundt; "Studie über aerothermodynamische Lasten eines hypersonischen Gleiters"; Angewandte Forschung für Verteidigung und Sicherheit in Deutschland conference of DWT; Bonn, Germany; 2022.
• D. Hauger, J. Bonin, Ch. Mundt; "A Study of Aerothermodynamic Loads on Hypersonic Glide Vehicles"; 3AF IAMD14 international conference on Integrated Air and Missile Defence; Nice, France, (online); 2021.

Theses

• M.Sc.: Modeling Of Reynolds Stress Tensor with Embedded Galilean Invariance using a Supervised Deep Learning Algorithm (Purdue University, US)
• B.Sc.: Optimierung und Kalibrierung eines numerischen Modells zur Beschreibung der kinetischen Prozesse bei der Adsorption von Methanol in Aktivkohle-Formkörpern (Universität Stuttgart, Germany)

Teaching and Students

Teaching: Winter trimester 2023 & 2024 --- Übung zu Nichtgleichgewichtsthermodynamik

Topics for theses and student projects: Numerical simulation (CFD) of high-enthalpy flows, such as atmospheric reentry. Reach out to me by email! If this topic isn't for you but you are generally interested in our institute check out current openings, or contact Colum Walter.

Bio

Dominik Tobias James, formerly Hauger, is a doctoral research assistant of Prof. Mundt at the Institute of Thermodynamics, Bundeswehr University Munich. His research focuses on the simulation of high-enthalpy flows such as the atmospheric reentry of a hypersonic vehicle.

He completed his B.Sc. in aerospace engineering at the University of Stuttgart in 2016. In the same year he joined Purdue University as a Fulbright scholar. In 2018, he received his M.Sc. in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering, with a minor in Computational Science and Engineering. He then worked for two years on machine learning applied to CFD in the Computational Fluid Dynamics and Heat Transfer Lab of Prof. Shih.

You can find more information on LinkedIn.