Mechanism of active flow control using a novel spike aerodome-channel concept in the hypersonic flow: A numerical study

• Published in: Physics of fluids (1994) 2024-08, Vol.36 (8)
• Main Authors: Meng, Yu-shan, Wang, Zhong-wei, Huang, Wei, Niu, Yao-bin, Xie, Zan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Active control; Aerodynamic heating; Angle of attack; Axisymmetric bodies; Axisymmetric flow; Blunt bodies; Configuration management; Design parameters; Drag; Drag reduction; Flow control; Hypersonic flow; Hypersonic vehicles; Mach number; Stanton number; Turbulence models; Turbulent flow; Two dimensional bodies; Two dimensional flow; Zero angle of attack
• ISSN: 1070-6631; 1089-7666
• DOI: 10.1063/5.0220407

Among the design requirements of hypersonic vehicles, reducing aerodynamic heating and drag force simultaneously is the main challenge. This paper proposes a novel spike aerodome-channel combination concept to realize the flow field reconstruction around the hypersonic blunt body. The novel configuration is investigated in the axisymmetric flow at a Mach number of 6 at zero angle of attack. The two-dimensional Reynold-averaged Navier–Stokes equations are numerically solved, and the shear-stress transport k–ω model is the turbulence model implemented in this study. Parameters such as spike length and lateral jet location are investigated to explore the drag and heat reduction performance and the flow control features. The obtained results show that the application of the novel spike aerodome-channel concept alters the flow field by eliminating or replacing the strong bow shock wave, and the design of hypersonic vehicles can benefit from the application of the proposed concept. The blunt body coupled with a frustum of cone-tipped spike-channel configuration provides a remarkable drag reduction effect of 20.71% with respect to the case without channel. Considering the effect of lateral jet location, the drag reduction performance of the case with LR = 0.75 is superior to that of the root jet case at the same spike length, and a considerable drag reduction of 28.93% is obtained with L/D = 2.4. In addition, longer spike length is beneficial for improving drag reduction performance, while excellent efficiency of heat protection is obtained in a certain spike length range. For the case of L/D = 1.6 with root jet, the peak Stanton number is significantly decreased by 33.51%.