Flap Efficiency and Heating of a Winged Reentry Vehicle

Abstract

Navier-Stokes solutions are analyzed for a winged re-entry vehicle at hypersonic freestream conditions corresponding to cold wind tunnel tests and a flight trajectory point. The flow was assumed laminar and calorically perfect for the wind tunnel case and in thermochemical equilibrium for the flight trajectory point. Computations are presented for clean configurations and for configurations with deflected control surfaces. The accuracy of the computed solutions is addressed by grid refinement studies and by comparing numerical results with available experimental data. Euler results are used to show the importance of the viscous effects on control surface efficiency. The impact of elevon camber on control efficiency and aerodynamic heating is also addressed. Strong changes in flow topology are found by changing from wind tunnel to flight conditions, in that local flow separations are reduced or suppressed. Additionally, significant three-dimensional.