Engineering methods in aerodynamics - Application to future reusable launcher configurations and comparisons with wind tunnel tests

Abstract

Future reusable launchers ( using either aibreathing or rocket propulsion ) design requires a rather big effort in order to evaluate the aerodynamic characteristics all over the ascent and reentry trajectory. Up to now, in the frame of preliminary studies performed at Aerospatiale in order to compare the different vehicle configurations, only low cost ( engineering ) methods have been used for airframe design and estimation of aerodynamic charactcristics.Nevertheless, with the problem of propulsion integration which becomes harder and harder as Mach number increases, more sophisticated tools have to be used, particularly for the forebody and nozzle design. After a description of the domain in which aerodynamics has to be studied, critical points are presented. In a second part, some available tools are described, including their limitations. This is completed by a comparison of results obtained with engineering tools with wind tunnel tests, which have been performed on a SSTO named "STS2000 -Shape 21" from Mach 0.5 up to 4.36 . The third part