Comparison of Different Fidelity Approaches for the Coupled Aerothermodynamic Heating of Blunt Leading Edge High Lift Reentry Vehicles

Abstract

The present study shows the influence of different fidelity flow solvers and structure models on the aerothermodynamic heating of a high lift reentry vehicle (HLRV). The study is carried out on a generic waverider (WR) geometry. The reference solution is computed by a high-fidelity unsteady RANS coupled multidisciplinary simulation. The analysis is performed for the forced flight along a generic trajectory. The multidisciplinary coupling leads to a realistic evaluation of the overall heating for the vehicle entering the atmosphere of the earth. The low-fidelity heat flux in the blunt leading edge region is calculated by the Fay-Riddell equation in combination with relations for local heating of cylinders. Away from the leading edge, flat plate methods are used. The vehicle structure is represented by a one-dimensional heat conduction solver with a simplified material layer model. The differences between the models of different fidelity and leading edge simplifications are shown.