NAVIER-STOKES COMPUTATIONS OF NEAR-WAKE FLOW ON BLUNT BODY UNDER HYPERSONIC RAREFIED CONDITIONS

THE DEVELOPMENT OF A HYPERSONIC MERGED LAYER (HML) PROGRAM IS PROPOSED TO INVESTIGATE THE NEAR-WAKE FLOW ON THE AOTV INTHE RAREFIED AND TRANSITIONAL FLOW REGIMES. DUE TO THE LOW DENSITY, HIGH ENERGY VISCOUS FLOW IMPINGEMENT ON THE PAYLOAD BAY, IT IS NECESSARY TO ASSESS THE THERMAL ENVIRONMENT, INCLUDING THE FLOW REATTACHMENT AND THE RECIRCULATION ZONE, TO QUANTIFY THE THERMAL PROTECTION SYSTEM. ALSO, WE MUST BE ABLE TO CALCULATE CORRECTLY THE AERODYNAMIC FORCES IN THE BASE REGION. PHASE I RESEARCH DEMONSTRATED THE VALIDITY OF THE NAVIER-STOKES EQUATIONS FORSOLVING FLOW OVER A BLUNT BODY IN THE TRANSITIONAL REGIME. THE PHASE II EFFORT WILL CONCENTRATE ON THE DESIGN, DEVELOPMENT, AND VERIFICATION OF AN HML PROGRAM THAT PREDICTS FLOW QUANTITIES ON THE AFTERBODY OF AN AXISYMMETRICBODY. RESEARCH AND DESIGN TASKS WILL INCLUDE A STUDY OF DOWNSTREAM EFFECTS ON THE STAGNATION LINE SOLUTION, THE DEVELOPMENT OF A GRID GENERATION TECHNIQUE, CALCULATION OF THE NAVIER-STOKES EQUATIONS, APPLICATION OF AN UPWIND FINITE-DIFFERENCE SCHEME, AND DESIGN OF A MODULAR PROGRAM THAT IMPLEMENTS THESE ALGORITHMS. A STRUCTURED TESTING PROCEDURE WILL THEN BE PERFORMED ON THE PROGRAM TO VERIFY ITS ABILITY TO MODEL THE NEAR-WAKE FLOW ON THE AOTV.