Aerodynamic performance analysis of a winged re-entry vehicle from hypersonic down to subsonic speed

Abstract

The paper deals with the aerodynamic performance analysis at a phase-A design level of a reusable and unmanned flying laboratory designed to perform a high lift return from low Earth orbit. The flying test bed aims to provide experimental data in the framework of re-entry technologies. The vehicle concept is a wing body with rather sharp leading edges and slender aerodynamic configuration. Several design approaches, ranging from engineering-based to computational fluid dynamics analyses, have been addressed in this work. In particular, vehicle aerodynamic performances for a wide range of freestream flow conditions, from subsonic to hypersonic regime, including reacting and non-reacting flow and different angles of attack have been provided and compared. Highlights on aerodynamic control surfaces' effects, vehicle longitudinal and lateral–directional static stability are provided as well. Computational fluid dynamics results confirm that high temperature real gas effects seem to be fundamental for the assessment of the concept aerodynamics, especially concerning pitching moments evaluation.