Numerical Investigation on the Jet Characteristics and the Heat and Drag Reductions of Opposing Jet in Hypersonic Nonequilibrium Flows

Abstract

We adopted the transient numerical method for the simulation of an ELECTRE vehicle with an opposing jet at an altitude of 53.3 km and 13 Ma to explore the jet characteristics as well as the performance in heat and drag reductions of the opposing jet in hypersonic nonequilibrium flows. The time-accurate, nonequilibrium N-S equations coupled with the five-species Park chemical kinetic model and vibrational energy excitation were applied, and an open source solver Hy2FOAM based on the OpenFOAM platform was adopted. Three opposing jets with different jet radii (R7 jet, R14 jet, and R21 jet) were investigated. The results show that with the increasing jet flow rate, the jet mode of the opposing jet with a small jet radius varies from the overflow mode to the long penetration mode (LPM) and finally to the short penetration mode (SPM), while that with a large jet radius directly changes from the overflow mode to the SPM. The state of the jet in the overflow mode is stable, whereas in SPM and LPM, it is unstable. The investigation of the heat and drag reductions for the R7, R14, and R21 jets shows that except for the jet in LPM, the jet in SPM and overflow mode can provide effective thermal protection, and the thermal protection is enhanced with the increasing jet flow rate. Moreover, the jet in both LPM and SPM can effectively reduce the aerodynamic drag, but the jet in overflow mode cannot provide effective drag reduction. Moreover, the jet with a large radius and in the overflow mode has a better thermal protection effect, and a small jet radius contributes to the drag reduction.