Abstract
For a design of a reentry capsule and its flight, one of the most important problems is an assessment of the dynamic stability in transonic speed. In this study, dynamic stability tests for a lifting capsule were conducted with the 1-DOF free-rotation test method in the JAXA 2m × 2m Transonic Wind Tunnel. In this test method, the reduced frequency and time history of the angular motion in non-dimensional time could be matched between the wind-tunnel test and the actual flight. Effects of flow conditions, location of center of gravity, an ablated shape, surface roughness and model MOI were discussed with the obtained time-series angular data and schlieren photographs. Furthermore, a new data processing method was developed for calculating the damping coefficients. The obtained amplitude and frequency of the oscillations, and the estimated damping coefficients give helpful information for the project planning.
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