Experimental Study on Static and Dynamic Stability of a Blunt Body Configuration

Kurzfassung

The aero shape of ESA’s Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle (IXV) is prone to suffer from stability problems in the transonic regime. To avoid a supersonic descent system, small fins are implemented to the shape with the aim of passing the transonic flight regime at angles of incidence below 40° and improve static stability conditions in subsonic with a lift-to-drag ratio higher than 1. The fin shape is optimised in a numerical pre-study and two new configurations are investigated experimentally in the Trisonic Wind tunnel TMK of DLR Köln. Static and dynamic aerodynamic coefficients are determined between Ma=0.5 and 2.0 and implemented in an AEDB. The configurations’ performance is compared to that of the original IXV aero shape. It can be stated, that implementation of the fins significantly improved the longitudinal static and dynamic stability of the aero shape. The authors therefore recommend further investigations on the new configurations.