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Advances in Aircraft and Spacecraft Science Volume 6, Number 3, May 2019 , pages 225-238 DOI: https://doi.org/10.12989/aas.2019.6.3.225 |
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Measured aerodynamic coefficients of without and with spiked blunt body at Mach 6 |
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R. Kalimuthu, R. C. Mehta and E. Rathakrishnan
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| Abstract | ||
| A spike attached to a blunt nosed body significantly alters its flow field and influences the aerodynamic coefficients at hypersonic speed. The basic body is an axisymmetric, with a hemisphere nose followed by a cylindrical portion. Five different types of spikes, namely, conical aerospike, hemisphere aerospike, flat-face aerospike, hemisphere aerodisk and flat-face aerodisk are attached to the basic body in order to assess the aerodynamic characteristic. The spiked blunt body without the aerospike or aerodisk has been set to be a basic model. The coefficients of drag, lift and pitching moment were measured with and without blunt spike body for the length-to-diameter ratio (L/D) of 0.5, 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0, at Mach 6 and angle of attack up to 8 degrees using a strain gauge balance. The measured forces and moment data are employed to determine the relative performance of the aerodynamic with respect to the basic model. A maximum of 77 percent drag reduction was achieved with hemisphere aerospike of L/D = 2.0. The comparison of aerodynamic coefficients between the basic model and the spiked blunt body reveals that the aerodynamic drag and pitching moment coefficients decrease with increasing the L/D ratio and angle of attack but the lift coefficient has increasing characteristics. | ||
| Key Words | ||
| aerodynamics coefficients; aerospike; aerodisk; blunt body; fluid dynamics; hypersonic flow; pitching moment; shock wave; space vehicle | ||
| Address | ||
| R. Kalimuthu: Vikram Saarabhai Space Centre, Trivandrum 695022, India 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 | ||
