| Research was conducted to determine the flow field properties about the complex (fuselage, vertical fin, ventral fin, wing and longitudinal control) configuration of a Mach 10 hypersonic cruise vehicle at cruise flight conditions. Analysis of anticipated flow characteristics, modeling equations, and research tools was conducted, followed by two and three-dimensional numerical studies involving isolated control surfaces at representative freestream conditions. Following preliminary analysis and model definition, a full vehicle, nose to tail numerical study at various angles of attack and longitudinal control surface deflection angles was conducted. Calibration of the flow solver used in this research was accomplished previously on other geometries, as the lack of available experimental data on the research vehicle precluded its use in calibration. The study afforded a review of an experimental 3-D Thin Layer/Parabolized Navier Stokes Code, with turbulence modeling, flux limiting, and boundary condition modifications, as well as an assessment of the effects of atmospheric constituent chemical reactions on flow characteristics. A methodology was introduced to avoid multi-zoned grids, allowing single zone space marching from nose to tail on a hypersonic vehicle with complex movable geometry. Included was a determination and discussion of the parametric effects of turbulence and turbulence modeling, moving control surface temporal variations, flux limiting algorithms, and chemical nonequilibrium and constituent species variations, on global engineering properties. The study provides an efficient practical application for an experimental numerical tool, a methodology for extending that tool to a full complex hypersonic vehicle configuration, analytical observations regarding hypersonic analysis techniques, and an addition to the body of research data on hypersonic vehicles. |
