Drag Reduction Using Spiked-Aerodisk & Reattachment Ring for Hypersonic Hemispherical Bodies

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Professor of Fluid Mechanics and Turbomachines, Department of Mechanical Power Engineering, Ain Shams University, Cairo 11517, Egypt.

2 Associate Professor of Fluid Mechanics and Turbomachines, Department of Mechanical Power Engineering, Ain Shams University, Cairo 11517, Egypt.

3 M.Sc. Research Student, Department of Mechanical Power Engineering, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt.

Abstract

Rockets and Shuttles flying at hypersonic speeds experience severe drag and aerodynamic heating. While blunting the fore-body helps distribute the heat load over a large area, this produces, however, substantial amount of drag. A number of studies were dedicated to understanding the mechanism of drag and heat mitigation with spikes and maximizing the performance. This study aims at alleviating the severe pressure and heating occurring at the reattachment point by the introduction of the Reattachment Ring; a ring mounted at the reattachment point. Using the commercial code FLUENT, to solve the complicated flow field, this study seeks to maximize the amount of the total drag and heat reduction using spike-diskspike assembly. The models are tested at Mach 6, 8 & 10 at altitude 25 km in standard atmosphere. The Reattachment Ring and the spike-disk-spike assembly add up synergistically to achieve a maximum drag reduction of 69.82%.

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