Flow alteration technique to mitigate wave drag by hemispherical aero-spike spike for large angle blunted cone in hypersonic flow

Abstract

Flow alteration drag reduction by hemispherical aero-spike for a larger angle blunt cone at hypersonic speed (Mach = 8.0) is investigated by using ANSYS Fluent. Numerical studies were carried out using finite volume (FV) based compressible flow solver to solve the two-dimensional Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equation. In this study, the k-ωtwo-equation turbulence model was used. Air has been taken as flowing fluid for analysis. In this analysis, aero-spike tip of hemispherical shape has been taken. The length of the aero-spike spike is taken on the basis of four different lengths to base diameter (L/D) ratios, in which these ratios are 0.2, 0.5, 0.7 and 1.0 respectively. The shortest length aero-spike is 14 mm and the longest length is 105 mm. The numerical investigation found a drag reduction of about 23–76 % using aero-spike in a full planner 600 apex angle blunt cone.