Flow over an all-body hypersonic aircraft - Experiment and computation

Abstract

The objective of the present investigation is to establish a benchmark experimental data base for a generic hypersonic vehicle shape for validation and/or calibration of advanced computational fluid dynamics computer codes. This paper includes results from the comprehensive test program conducted in the NASA Ames 3.5-ft Hypersonic Wind Tunnel for a generic all-body hypersonic aircraft model. Experimental and computational results on flow visualization, surface pressures, surface convective heat transfer, and pilot-pressure flowfield surveys are presented. Comparisons of the experimental results with computational results from an upwind parabolized Navier-Stokes code developed at NASA Ames demonstrate the capabilities of this code. HE advanced computational fluid dynamics (CFD) com- puter codes being developed for use in the design of such hypersonic aircraft as the National Aero-Space Plane (NASP) and other hypersonic vehicles require comparisons of the com- putational results with a broad spectrum of experimental data to fully assess the validity of the codes and to develop confi- dence in the numerical simulation procedures. This is particu- larly true for complex flowfields with such features as bound- ary-layer transition and turbulence, rapid flow expansions, and leeside flow with the attendant flow separation and vor- tices. Validated codes for such flowfields will be critical to the development of the NASP and other hypersonic vehicles. Therefore, the objective of the present investigation is to es- tablish a benchmark experimental data base for a generic hy- personic vehicle shape for validation and/or calibration of advanced CFD computer codes. This is being done by con- ducting a comprehensive test program for a generic all-body hypersonic aircraft model in the NASA Ames 3.5-ft Hyper- sonic Wind Tunnel to obtain pertinent surface and flowfield data over a broad range of test conditions. Experimental and computational results on flow visualization, surface pressures, surface convective heat transfer, and pitot-pressure flowfield surveys will be presented in this, paper. Of particular signifi- cance, comparisons of the experimental results with computa- tional results from the NASA Ames UPS code (an upwind parabolized Navier-Stokes solver) will be shown to demon- strate the capabilities of this code. Some comparisons of the data with computations from approximate inviscid methods will also be given.