Abstract:
Hypersonic research activities has been in major focus in recent times around the globe
because of the tremendous developments in hypersonic reentry vehicles, orbital transfer
vehicles, reusable launch vehicles and space recovery experimental modules. The
vehicles re-enters the earth’s atmosphere at hypersonic speed. In this study a re-entry
vehicle in the shape of a blunted cone is investigated. Since it is not possible to reproduce
all aspects of hypersonic flight in wind tunnel facilities, so there is a need for better
computer codes regarding hypersonic aerodynamics, so the simulation of re-entry
vehicles is very important. In this a computer code based on the aerodynamics of the
blunted cone-flare will be developed using time marching numerical simulation. This
code was benchmarked using analytical results. The code was then applied to unfold
detailed spatial and temporal profiles of flow over the blunted cone. These profiles are
compared with the results obtained using commercial software. The computed results
were also compared with experimental results based on hypersonic wind tunnel testing. A
good agreement was achieved between the analytical results, the results based on the
code developed, those using commercial software and the hypersonic wind tunnel results.
