Design and Analysis of Double-Swept Waverider with Wing Dihedral

Abstract

A waverider design given a three-dimensional leading edge is developed from the osculating-cone method, and double-swept waveriders with wing dihedral were generated by customizing the shape of leading edges. Using computational fluid dynamics, the hypersonic performances of the waveriders were evaluated in the Mach number 5 states with the angle of attack ranging from 0 to and angle of side ranging from to . The effect of the wings with positive and negative dihedral angles, namely, the wing dihedral and anhedral, on the longitudinal, lateral, and directional stability was also studied. Results show that both the dihedral and anhedral made nearly no difference to the wave-riding performance, and hence a high lift-to-drag ratio was maintained in hypersonic state. However, compared with the configuration without wing dihedral and the configuration with a ventral fin, the effects of wing dihedral and anhedral on stabilities were different: wing dihedral reduced the longitudinal stability and improved the lateral and directional stability; wing anhedral improved the longitudinal and directional stability but reduced the lateral stability. Lateral–directional dynamic stability was also predicted. This research proposes an idea to promote the engineering application of waveriders when considering the stability requirements.