Drag reduction in hypersonic flows with aerospike and aerodisk Technology

In this investigation, the effects of spike as retractable drag and aerodynamic heating reduction into the re-entry Earth’s atmosphere for hemispherical body flying at hypersonic flow have been numerically studied. This numerical solution has been carried out for different length, shapes and nose configuration of spike. Additional modifications to the tip the spike are investigated in order to obtain different bow shocks, including no spike, conical, flat and hemispherical aerodisk mounted. Unsteady compressible ۳-D NavierStokes equations are solved with k-ω (SST) turbulence model for a flow over a forward facing spike attached to a heat shield for a free stream Mach number of ۶. The obtained numerical results are compared with the experimental ones, and the outcome shows acceptable agreement between the two. This analysis shows that the aerodisk is more effective than aerospike, The designs produced ۶۰% and ۱۵% reduction in drag and wall temperature responses, respectively.

Keywords:

Drag reduction , Aerodynamic heating , Spike , Hypersonic flow , Shock wave