Aerodynamic Effects and Heat Flux Augmentation of a Transpiration Cooled Hypersonic Sharp Leading Edge

Abstract

This paper presents numerical results investigating the aerodynamic and aerothermal effects of mass injection applied to hypersonic sharp leading edges, in the context of active thermal protection systems. A numerical study was carried out using Eilmer to investigate the coupling of leading edge radius and mass injection on heat flux and drag augmentations. Radii from 1 mm to 25 mm were considered at blowing parameters from 0.0 to 1.5 on 2D planar leading edge at a fixed trajectory point. Drag was found to barely change with mass injection, whereas heat flux was found to significantly reduce at the leading edge. The leading edge heat flux distribution could be collapsed, and therefore predicted, straightforwardly. Film cooling predictive methods in literature for other mass injection scenarios were found to collapse the heat flux and concentration comfortably with empirical modifications.