A Study of Aerothermal Loads in the Presence of Edney Type IV Interaction

Abstract

Numerical simulation results of specific supersonic and hypersonic flows interactions leading to complex shocks structures are presented in the paper. These interactions can produce abnormal thermal loads that should be taken into account for Thermal Protection System design for hypersonic vehicles. Calculations were made with the aid of CAD-Embedded CFD software FloEFD. To validate the CFD code in this field a study of shock/shock interaction near 2D cylinder has been carried out. Good agreement with experimental data in terms of shock structure, surface pressure and surface heat flux distributions was obtained. To demonstrate how these shocks interactions effects can affect in case of a real 3D complex hypersonic vehicle a 3D study of interaction between the Space Shuttle Orbiter bow shock and External Tank bow shock under certain flow regime has been carried out. Comparison with the data obtained in the simulation of the ‘single Orbiter’ flow showed a small-scale zone on Orbiter nose with considerably increased peak pressure and heat flux values due shock/shock interaction.