Experimental and Numerical Investigation on Static and Dynamic Stability of a Blunted Body Configuration – Project Overview

Abstract

The aero shape of ESA’s Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle (IXV) is prone to suffer from stability problems in the transonic regime. The actual study aims to avoid the supersonic descent system used for IXV by improving aerodynamic stability with minor modification of the Outer Mold Line (OML). It should be achieved to pass the transonic flight regime at angle of incidence reduced to below 40° and to improve static stability conditions in subsonic with a lift-to-drag ratio higher than 1. The OML modification is defined within a numerical pre-study. Then, two new configurations are investigated experimentally and numerically to determine static and dynamic aerodynamic coefficients between Mach 0.5 and 2.0. An AErodynamic Data Base (AEDB) is built to analyse the flight performance of the new configurations on a potential re-entry mission. It seems as if the introduced OML modifications are successful to overcome the transonic stability issues of IXV.