Thermo-Fluid Analysis of Supersonic Flow Over Ballistic Shaped Bodies with multiple aero-disk spike configurations

Abstract

The aerodynamics of re-entry vehicles has always been in the forefront among space research. With the increasing interests in space exploration, it is important to understand the aerodynamics of spacecrafts and identify an optimum design to overcome the forces due to the earth's atmosphere. In this paper, Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) analysis has been carried out on ballistic bodies with a single, double and triple aero-disk spikes. The study also involves the presence and absence of a blunt tip to aid the analysis of flow behaviour on these bodies under two scenarios namely zero-degree angle of attack and at supersonic speed (Mach 2.0). The aerodynamic drag and surface heat transfer effects of these spikes on three different blunt body configurations has been studied. The shape of the blunt bodies vary based on the nose bluntness factor. The flow patterns of these configurations were three-dimensionally visualized via Schlieren-like, Mach and Pressure contours. It was observed that the usage of aero-disk spike reduced the aerodynamic drag by 45%–60% when compared to the bodies without spikes. The configuration labelled 3221 showed the maximum effect with an average drag reduction of more than 55%. There was a remarkable drop in the stagnation point value of surface heat flux with the addition of all five spike system. An efficient performance of localized peak heat fluxes was also noticed upon the addition of double and triple spike systems. In conclusion, it has been observed that the usage of double and triple spikes on the 3221 blunt body has significantly improved its aerodynamic drag and its surface heat flux.