Up-To-Date Gasdynamic Models of Hypersonic Aerodynamics and Heat Transfer with Real Gas Properties

Abstract

Hypersonic aerodynamics and heat transfer problems have received renewed interest during the past decade (Anderson 1984). This revival has been due to the design and creation of space vehicles that move along glide reentry trajectories in the upper layers of the Earth's atmosphere (H = 50100 km) at hypersonic velocities (V» < 7.8 km S-I; i.e. Space Shuttle, Buran), and the development of space vehicles with reentry trajectories in the upper atmospheric layers (at altitudes H = 70-100 km) which use aerodynamic braking during recovery from geosynchronous orbit (V OJ = 7-11 km s-') at nominal reentry velocities VOJ = 10 km s-' (Walberg 1983). Typical trajectories of various spacecraft and the regions of different physical and chemical processes in the shock layer near such vehicles are shown in Figure 1. Unlike the aerodynamic and heat transfer characteristics of con­ ventional aircraft, these problems are characterized at reentry (or ascend­ ing) trajectories by a wide range of Reynolds numbers (100 < Re,, ) , large