Numerical Investigation on Aerodynamic Characteristics of an Active Jets-Matrix Serving as Pitch Control Surface

Abstract

To facilitate future Hypersonic Flight Vehicle (HFV) implementation with high maneuverability throughout its reentry trajectory, an Active Jets-Matrix (AJM) is designed to serve as the flapless pitch control surface. The AJM consists of four control groups composed in total of 48 supersonic nozzles. The AJM aims to utilize the jet flow-interaction-induced additional control moment to improve the control efficiency during atmospheric entry. A comparative research method is employed to study the eight simulation cases for three different HFV configurations (baseline, mechanical control surface with 30° deflection, and the AJM configuration) and two AJM control moment adjustment strategies (nozzle chamber pressure regulation and discretized nozzle group on–off control). A conventional in-house computational fluid dynamics (CFD) solver with the two-equation SST turbulence model is employed to undertake the simulation tasks. Simulation results indicate that: (a) only the AJM configuration is capable of trimming the HFV in pitch channel; (b) nonlinearity exists between the augmentation moment and the specific control variable from respective adjustment strategies; (c) the chamber pressure regulation strategy bears higher overall efficiency, while the discretized control strategy induces more intense local jet-flow interaction. With a maximum control moment augmentation of 1.58, the AJM presents itself as a competitive candidate for future HFV flapless control methods.