Improved Hypersonic Jet Interaction Modeling with Propulsion Exhaust

Evolving threat hypersonic glide vehicles (HGV) and hypersonic cruise missiles (HCM) pose a substantial challenge for homeland defense. To defend against such threats will require the development of highly maneuverable intercept vehicles that supplement aerodynamic controls with divert thrust jets, or a jet interaction (JI) control system. For HGV and HCM engagement scenarios, intercept occurs in a flight regime where aerodynamic interaction and chemical reacting flow effects are large and significantly influence the resulting control system forces and moments. To support the development of HGV and HCM intercept vehicle concepts, this program adapts a current state-of-the-art hypersonic flow solver and modeling toolkit, Reentry Vehicle Flowfield 3-D Model (RVFM3D) for application to hypersonic, reacting flow JI problems. RVFM3D is a 3-D, automated flowfield modeling package specialized for hypersonic vehicle analysis that includes the advanced physical models of the CRAFT CFDę solver. It additionally includes: (1) a user-friendly interface to expedite problem setup, (2) an automated grid generator for the user specified vehicle body, and (3) an automated execution environment to efficiently complete and post-process the simulation. These automation features greatly reduce the total solution generation time and enable non-CFD experts to rapidly turn around vehicle simulations. Approved for Public Release | 24-MDA-11673 (8 Jan 24)