Influence of Opposing Jet on an Aerodisk Nose Cone at Hypersonic Flow

Abstract

When flying at hypersonic speeds, it is a fundamental requirement to reduce the high drag resulting from a blunt nose cone in the ascent stage to increase the payload weight on the one hand and decrease the amount of energy needed to overcome the Earth’s gravity on the other. However, an aerospike can be attached on the front of the nose cone to obtain a high drag and heat load reduction. This study describes novel technique of an active flow control concepton nose cone with aerodisk that uses counterflowing jets to significantly modify external flowfields. In fact, this method strongly disperse the shock waves of supersonic and hypersonic vehicles to reduce aerothermal loads.Numerical simulations of a 2D axisymmetric aerodisked nose cone in hypersonic flow are conducted, and innovative techniques involving forward injection of gas from the stagnation point of the sphere are investigated; techniques include injection of various counterflowing jets (Helium and Carbon dioxide) as a coolant jet from the nose cone behind the aerodisk. In this study, the characteristics of the various jet conditions of a counterflowing jet on a cone surface were investigated numerically to improve performance of the jet on heat reduction at surface of a nose. Different Mach numbers at different altitudes have been chosen to investigate the effect of the aerospike on the nose cone’s surrounding flowfield. The drag and the heat load reduction is numerically evaluated at Mach numbers of 5.75. The results show that the lighter gas, Helium, is found to have a better cooling performance than Carbon Dioxide in low pressure ratios. The film cooling of Helium jet due to its lower specific heat capacity (Cp) character is efficient on heat load of the nose cone.