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Advances in Aircraft and Spacecraft Science Volume 10, Number 5, September 2023 , pages 457-471 DOI: https://doi.org/10.12989/aas.2023.10.5.457 |
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Computation of aerodynamic coefficients of a re-entry vehicle at Mach 6 |
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R.C. Mehta and E. Rathakrishnan
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| Abstract | ||
| The paper evaluates the aerodynamic coefficients on a blunt-nose re-entry capsule with a conical crosssection followed by a cone-flare body. A computer code is developed to solve three-dimensional compressible inviscid equations for flow over a Space Recovery Experiment (SRE) configuration at different flare-cone half-angle at Mach 6 and angle of attack up to 5o, at 1o interval. The surface pressure variation is numerically integrated to obtain the aerodynamic forces and pitching moment. The numerical analysis reveals the influence of flare-cone geometry on the flow characteristics and aerodynamic coefficients. The numerical results agree with wind tunnel results. Increase of cone-flare angle from 25o to 35o results in increase of normal force slope, axial forebody drag, base drag and location of centre of pressure by 62.5%, 56.2% and 33.13%, respectively, from the basic configuration of the SRE of 25o. | ||
| Key Words | ||
| aerodynamic coefficients; base flow; computational fluid dynamics; hypersonic flow; re-entry vehicle; shock wave | ||
| Address | ||
| R.C. Mehta: Department of Aeronautical Engineering, Noorul Islam Centre for Higher Education, Kumaracoil 629180, India E. Rathakrishnan: Department of Aerospace Engineering, Indian institute of Technology, Kanpur 208016, India | ||
