Flap Efficiency versus Flap Heating of a Winged Reentry Vehicle- A Challenge for the CFD-

Abstract

In the present study Navier-Stokes solutions are analyzed for a winged reentry vehicle at hypersonic free stream conditions corresponding to both, cold wind tunnel tests and a flight trajectory point. The flow was computed as laminar, assuming calorically perfect gas for the wind tunnel case. The high-temperature effects on thermodynamic and transport properties are modelled by assuming air in thermochemical equilibrium. Computations are presented for two types of control surfaces geometry: cambered and plain, 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. Also the importance of the viscous effects is shown by comparing the Navier-Stokes solutions with Euler solutions.