Anisotropic unstructured mesh adaption has been introduced and used in 2-D simulations of supersonic combustion in the DLR (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft-und Raumfahrt) scramjet combustion chamber. Three cases of non-reaction flow simulation with slip wall conditions

non-reaction flow simulation with non-slip wall conditions and reaction flow simulation (with nonslip wall conditions) were carried out. In the calculations

large gradient areas with anisotropic characteristics

such as shockwaves

jet-flows

boundary layers

and flames

were detected and well refined with anisotropic meshes. As a result

compared with the initial simulation using an isotropic mesh

element numbers were reduced by 36.2%

36.4% and 36.8%

respectively

in case of slip conditions

nonslip conditions and reactions

meanwhile the accuracy and resolution in large gradient areas was even better. The results show high efficiency and high accuracy of anisotropic mesh approach compared with the isotropic mesh

for the problems with significant anisotropic characteristics such as supersonic combustion. It has been demonstrated that Hessian metrics based on Mach numbers can be used to generate anisotropic meshes for the supersonic combustion simulation.