Abstract
Drag reduction technology plays a significant role in extending the flight range for a high-speed vehicle. A wave drag reduction strategy via heat addition to a blunt body with a spike was proposed and numerically validated. The heat addition is simulated with continuous heating in a confined area upstream of the blunt body. The effects of heat addition on drag reduction in three flow conditions ( M = 3.98 , 5 , 6 ) were compared, and the influence of power density q h ( q 1 = 2.0 × 10 8 W / m 3 , q 2 = 5.0 × 10 8 W / m 3 , and q 3 = 1.0 × 10 9 W / m 3 ) of heating was evaluated. Results show that the heat addition has a positive way to reduce the drag of the body with a spike alone, and more satisfactory drag reduction effectiveness can be achieved at a higher Mach number. The drag reduction coefficient increases with q h in the same flow condition, with a maximum of 38.9% ( M = 6 ) as q 3 = 1.0 × 10 9 W / m 3 . The wave drag reduction principle was discussed by a transient calculation, which indicates that the separation region has entrainment of the heated air and expanded with its sonic line away from the blunt cone, which results in an alleviation of the pressure load caused by shock/shock interaction.
Highlights
The wave drag on a vehicle due to the increase in entropy across the shock wave surrounding a blunt body in highspeed flight is a serious consideration in its aerodynamic design
The structure of shock waves induced by a spiked blunt body with and without heat addition was visualized through contours of density gradient magnitude
The principle of a further drag reduction is that the shock/shock interaction is alleviated by shifting the conical shock upward through altering the characteristics of the separation bubble
Summary
The wave drag on a vehicle due to the increase in entropy across the shock wave surrounding a blunt body in highspeed flight is a serious consideration in its aerodynamic design. One way to alleviate the wave drag is to alter the flow in front of the body [1], and the structural spike at the nose of a blunt body is well known, which can reduce the wave drag significantly [2,3,4]. The strong bow shock wave off the wall of the blunt body can be effectively pushed upstream by the spike. A conical shock is generated by the spike, which can alter the flow condition upstream of the blunt body. A recirculation zone is formed in the flow field near the head of the blunt body. Research shows that installing a spike on the head of a high-speed vehicle has been proved to be a simple and effective approach to reduce the wave drag
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