Numerical Simulation of Flow Field around an Inflatable Reentry Vehicle during a Demonstration Flight

An inflatable membrane reentry vehicle has been developed as one of the innovative reentry technologies. A suborbital reentry demonstration using a sounding rocket was carried out in 2012. Contrary to the result of a preliminary study, the vehicle always had an angle of attack (AoA) during its reentry. In addition, the amplitude of AoA gradually increased as altitude decreased, and the vehicle rotated vertically under Mach number of 0.1 (M0.1). As a first step to clarify the cause of attitude instability and vertical rotation, the aerodynamic characteristics, that concern static stability, are numerically investigated. Numerical simulations were carried out for the cases of Mach 0.9 (M0.9), 0.6 (M0.6), 0.3 (M0.3), and 0.1 (M0.1) and pitching moment coefficients () were obtained. Analysis software "RG-FaSTAR" for M0.9, and "FrontFlow/red" for M0.6, M0.3 and M0.1, are used, respectively. Large eddy simulation (LES) was performed using the standard Smagorinsky model to resolve highly unsteady flow features. Because the slope of with respect to AoA was negative for all cases, it was found that the vehicle is statically stable. For M0.9, M0.6 and M0.3 cases, absolute values of were almost the same. On the other hand, for M0.1, had a particularly large value, because the surface pressure distribution on rear side of the vehicle was different from the other cases. This difference was attributed to the separation point on the lower torus moving backward and turbulence in wake being enhanced with a decrease in Mach number and an increase in the Reynolds number.

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Aerodynamic Thermal Simulation and Heat Flux Distribution Study of Mechanical Expansion Reentry Vehicle

Sun

Zhu

et al. 2023

Aerospace

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The mechanical expansion reentry vehicle has become the focus of deep space exploration because of its good deceleration effect and high stability. However, due to its special aerodynamic shape, its surface heat flux characteristics are different from traditional reentry vehicles. In this paper, the Two-Temperature model is introduced to simulate heat flux distribution. The influence of different structure parameters and flight parameters on the flow field structure and surface heat flux is also analyzed. The research shows that the Two-Temperature model can improve the prediction accuracy and that the heat flux may peak at the both the head and shoulder of the vehicle. Structural parameters RB, RN, and θ have an obvious negative effect on QO. RB, RN, RR, and LZ have a negative correlation with QR. QR drops first and then rises as θ increases and RS decreases. Flight parameters Ma have a positive effect on QO and QR while H is negative; α makes the heat flux distribution asymmetric.

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Numerical Simulation of Flow Field around an Inflatable Reentry Vehicle during a Demonstration Flight

Cited by 3 publications

References 6 publications

Research on aerodynamic shape optimization of reentry vehicle based on hybrid scale multi-fidelity neural network model

Research on aerodynamic shape optimization of reentry vehicle based on hybrid scale multi-fidelity neural network model

Aerodynamic instability of flare-type membrane inflatable vehicle in suborbital reentry demonstration

Aerodynamic Thermal Simulation and Heat Flux Distribution Study of Mechanical Expansion Reentry Vehicle

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