Recompression of Nonequilibrium Flow in the Wake of a Blunted Cone

Abstract

The entry of a planetary probe, which is a 140 Grad total-included- angle blunted cone with a spherical nose, rounded edges, and a cylindrical afterbody is significantly influenced by nonequilibrium flow effects. Therefore its aerodynamic characteristics have been investigated in the continuum flow of a High Enthaly Shock Tunnelat the DLR in Goettingen (HEG). Calculations with a Thin-Layer Navier- Stokes code which is capable of simulating chemical and thermal nonequilibrium flows have been carried out and compared tomeasured heat transfer and pressure distributions. Depending on the operating condition of the tunnel, up to 63% of the stagnation heattransfer rate was reached on the front body corner junction and upto 13% was measured on the afterbody sting due to the reattachmentof the separated shear layer. The numerical prediction on the forebody compares well with the experimental data, whereas the maximum heat loads on the sting were underestimated by the calculations.