Aerodynamic Investigation for Prospective Aerospace Vehicle in the Transitional Regime

Abstract

The basic quantitative tool for the study of hypersonic rarefied flows is the direct simulation Monte Carlo method (DSMC). The DSMC method requires a large amount of computer memory and performance and is unreasonably expensive at the first stage of spacecraft design and trajectory analysis. A possible solution to this problem is approximate engineering methods. However, the Monte Carlo method remains the most reliable approach to compare to the engineering methods that provide good results for the global aerodynamic coefficients of various geometry designs. This paper presents the calculation results of aerodynamic characteristics for spacecraft vehicles in the free molecular, the transitional and the continuum regimes using the local engineering method. Results and methods would be useful to calculate aerodynamics for new-generation hypersonic vehicle designs.

Computer Modelling of Aerothermodynamic Characteristics for Hypersonic Vehicles

“…In this case, it is necessary to involve more complete models that take into account the presence of the boundary layer [3]. In early papers [13,[15][16][17][18][19] described the results of aerodynamic characteristics of various hypersonic vehicles by using this method.…”

“…Except Reynolds number the most important parameter is the temperature factor T w /T 0, where T 0 , T w are the stagnation tempera- The dependency of the coefficients of the regime in the hypersonic case must ensure the transition to the free-molecular values at Re 0 →0, and to the values corresponding to the Newton theory, methods of thin tangent wedges and cones, at Re 0 →∞. On the basis of the analysis of computational and experimental data, the empirical formulas are proposed [15][16][17] …”