Numerical heat transfer study around a spiked blunt-nose body at Mach 6

An aerospike attached to a blunt body significantly alters its flowfield and influences aerodynamic drag at high speeds. The dynamic pressure in the recirculation area is highly reduced and this leads to the decrease in the aerodynamic drag. Consequently, the geometry of the aerospike has to be simulated in order to obtain a large conical recirculation region in front of the blunt body to get beneficial drag reduction. Axisymmetric compressible Navier-Stokes equations are solved using a finite volume discretization in conjunction with a multistage Runge-Kutta time stepping scheme. The effect of the various types of aerospike configurations on the reduction of aerodynamic drag is evaluated numerically at a length to diameter ratio of 0.5, at Mach 6 and at a zero angle of incidence. The computed density contours are showing satisfactory agreement with the schlieren pictures. The calculated pressure distribution on the blunt body compares well with the measured pressure data on the blunt body. Flowfield features such as formation of shock waves, separation region and reattachment point are examined for the flat-disc spike and on the hemispherical disc spike attached to the blunt body. One of the critical heating areas is at the stagnation point of a blunt body, where the incoming hypersonic flow is brought to rest by a normal shock and adiabatic compression. Therefore, the problem of computing the heat transfer rate near the stagnation point needs a solution of the entire flowfield from the shock to the spike body. The shock distance ahead of the hemisphere and the flat-disc is compared with the analytical solution and a good agreement is found between them. The influence of the shock wave generated from the spike is used to analyze the pressure distribution, the coefficient of skin friction and the wall heat flux facing the spike surface to the flow direction.