Proposal of thermal configuration optimization design for a maneuverable vehicle

The concept of thermal configuration optimization design is proposed, the corresponding design approaches to multidisciplinary design optimization techniques are developed and presented for the conceptual design of a hypersonic maneuverable reentry vehicle. Thermal configuration optimization design is to design the vehicle configuration which meets both the design requirements of aerodynamic efficiency and low thermal dynamic protection burdens at the very early design process using the synthetic multidisciplinary analysis methods including parametric configuration technique, aerodynamic prediction, thermal dynamic analysis, trajectory simulation and multiple objective genetic optimization algorism. The design example for a typical blunt biconic reentry maneuverable vehicle with four cruciform flaps indicates that the optimal configurations considering both lift to drag ratio and peak heat flux on stagnation point or on the second cone may decreases the peak heat flux to 30 percent of the initial ones while the trimming lift to drag ratio keeps equivalent to the initial. The effectiveness and the benefit of thermal configuration optimization design is validated and further investigation is prospected.