Postflight Receptivity and Transition Analysis of BOLT-2 Side A Descent Trajectory

The AFOSR Boundary Layer Turbulence Flight Experiment In Memory of Mike Holden (BOLT-2) was successfully flown in March 2022. The data collected has created the opportunity to validate computational tools and demonstrate the capabilities of leading hypersonic transition prediction methods. This paper documents the methodology for quiet DNS in US3D, and characterizes baseflow computations and grid convergence for the BOLT II flight vehicle. The case investigated is transitional, at 401.9s in the descent trajectory with freestream Reynolds number of 6 million. Laminar baseflow heat flux distributions are found to have good agreement with flight test data, and comparison to literature suggests that key flowfield features such as the boundary layer height and centerline streamwise vortices are well resolved.