High angle-of-attack inviscid Shuttle Orbiter computation

Abstract

As a preliminary step toward predicting the leeside thermal environment for winged reentry vehicles at flight conditions, a computational solution for the flow about the Shuttle Orbiter at wind tunnel conditions was made using a point-implicit, finite-volume scheme known as the Langley Aerothermodynamic Upwind Relaxation Algorithm (LAURA). The Scheme is a second-order accurate, upwind-biased Navier-Stokes solver capable of computing non-equilibrium chemistry flows with radiative equilibrium wall temperatures and finite-rate wall catalysis. For this study, however, the code is run in its simplest form, i.e., inviscid flow using perfect gas chemistry. The surface pressures resulting from the computational solution are compared with wind tunnel data. The results indicate that the dominant inviscid flow features are being accurately predicted on the leeside of the Shuttle Orbiter at a moderately high angle of attack.