Drag and heat reduction mechanism induced by jet interaction over a reusable launch vehicle in hypersonic flows

This paper presents numerical analyses of lateral jets in hypersonic flow injected at the blending area of a reusable launch vehicle. The simulation is performed utilizing the three-dimensional compressible RANS solver coupled with the SST k-?? turbulence model. Two classical experiments are employed to thoroughly validate the reliability of the code and the grid independence, and the numerical results such as schlieren images and surface pressure distributions have been verified systematically. Then, the influence of the number of jet orifices on the flow features, drag and heat reduction performance is investigated. The obtained results show that the introduction of sonic jet contains complex flow interaction phenomena, and the flow field is distinguished by features such as barrel shock, bow shock, separation region and recirculation zones. The jet strategy not only reduces the total drag, but also provides excellent thermal protection performance. The porous jet strategy yields a maximum value on the drag reduction of 19.73%, and the thermal protection performance is enhanced obviously compared with the original model.