Numerical investigation of a spiked blunt nose cone at hypersonic speeds

Abstract

When flying at hypersonic speeds, it is a fundamental requirement to reduce the high drag resulting from a blunt nose cone in the ascent stage to increase the payload weight on the one hand and decrease the amount of energy needed to overcome the Earth's gravity on the other. However, an aerospike can be attached on the front of the nose cone to obtain a high drag and heat load reduction. Different Mach numbers at different altitudes have been chosen to investigate the effect of the aerospike on the nose cone's surrounding flowfield. The drag and the heat load reduction is numerically evaluated at Mach numbers of 5.0, 7.0, and 10.0. Different lengths of the aerospike are investigated between 1 and 4 times the diameter of the dome of the nose cone. Additional modifications to the tip of the spike to obtain different bow shocks are examined, including a sharp front, a blunt spike, and an aerodome mounted on the tip of the spike. To solve the very complicated flowfield, the flow solver CFD-FASTRAN is used