Aerothermodynamics of Combined Spike and Counterflow Jet Technique for Reacting Hypersonic Flows

Abstract

Computational investigation is carried out to estimate the drag force and surface heating load for hypersonic reacting flows. An in-house viscous nonequilibrium finite volume-based reacting gas solver has been utilized. This solver is capable of investigating 11 chemical elementary reactions and temperature-dependent specific properties to reveal the effect of lower as well as higher freestream stagnation enthalpy conditions. Initially, the calorically perfect-gas and real-gas model-based simulations are carried out to understand the real-gas effects in the presence of a metallic spike. Computed surface pressure and heat flux are compared for the freestream stagnation enthalpy of 2 MJ/kg. The real-gas model predicts a 5% higher drag and 57.21 kW/m<sup>2</sup> higher peak heat flux compared to the perfect-gas model. However, lower enthalpy conditions predict almost the same drag force for any spike length. Further, a counterflowing jet is installed at the root of the spike, and flow field alterations are studied for this proposed integrated configuration. The root jet further pushes the conical shock in the upstream direction and provides an extra-large recirculation zone. Here, the possibility of drag and surface heat flux reduction is very much evident due to the decrease in surface pressure and presence of low-temperature jet gas in the vicinity of the object. Various freestream stagnation enthalpies, as well as the jet pressures, are considered to investigate the performance alterations by the combination technique. It is observed that the drag and surface heat load reduction efficiency of the combined configuration decreases with an increase in the freestream stagnation enthalpy. Moreover, it increases when increasing the root jet pressure for given enthalpy conditions. Hence, instead of attaching a long spike at the stagnation region of a blunt-shaped object, the use of a short spike and low-pressure root jet is recommended for a better reduction in drag and surface heat load.