Drag and heat flux reduction induced by a novel combinational spike with double aerodisks and channel concept for hypersonic vehicles

In order to reduce the drag and heat flux of the hypersonic vehicles，a novel combinational spike with double aerodisks and channel concept has been proposed. The air behind the bow shock flows into the channel at the head of the aerodisk，and then sprays out through the lateral jet in the middle of the spike. The two-dimensional axisymmetric Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes （RANS） equations coupled with the shear stress transport（SST）k-ω turbulence model are solved by finite volume method. The flow field around the combinational configuration is simulated and the drag and heat flux reduction effect is investigated under the flying altitude of 30 km and incoming Mach number of 6. Compared with the spike with single aerodisk，the spike with double aerodisks has better drag and heat flux reduction effect，while the combinational spike with double aerodisks and channel configuration can further improve the effect. The influencing factors of the combinational configuration on the flow field，drag and heat flux reduction effect are investigated thoroughly. The numerical results reveal that，within the research parameters，when the location of the lateral jet is close to the middle of the two aerodisks and the second aerodisk has a larger diameter，the drag and heat flux reduction effect becomes better. Compared with the spike with single aerodisk，the total drag coefficient of the configuration is reduced by 24.70%，and the peak value of Stanton number along the blunt body surface is reduced by 53.63%. © 2024 Journal of Propulsion Technology. All rights reserved.