Influence of Attack Angle on Magnetohydrodynamic Flow Control in Reentry Flight

Abstract

Three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) numerical simulation of MHD flow control is carried out to investigate the influence of the Hall effect on MHD flow control in Earth reentry flight with attack angles. Numerical results show that the Hall effect weakens the drag enhancement effect of MHD flow control in each attack angle case. Because the region with high electric current densities becomes confined to an area around the stagnation point. Moreover, when the vehicle has non-zero attack angles, the electric current occurs asymmetrically to the planes orthogonal to the entry direction of a vehicle. Consequently, a side force acts on the vehicle, although the side force is considerably weak compared with drag and lift forces. The direction of the side force depends on attack angles, and also the side force disappears at a certain attack angle.