Aerothermal Loads Analysis of ReFEx by coupled CFD Calculations

Kurzfassung

The Reusability Flight Experiment (ReFEx) is an experimental vehicle, which is developed by the German Aerospace Center (DLR). It simulates the re-entry of a reusable booster stage. After being propelled with a VSB30 rocket to an altitude of about 135 km it will perform an autonomous re-entry. This paper is focused on the analysis of the aerothermal loads. Different approaches are applied for the investigations of the thermal heating: from a very conservative worst-case analysis up to a full-coupled simulation via the DLR CoNF2aS2 tool (Coupled Numerical Fluid Flight Mechanic And Structure Simulation). The trajectory includes the launch as well as re-entry flight phase. The focus of the heating process analysis is on the experimental ReFEx vehicle itself.