CFD and experimental study of an inflatable re-entry vehicle model at Mach 3 conditions

A supersonic analysis of the SPRInT vehicle, a proposed re-entry module for the YES2 ‘SpaceMail’ system, was conducted using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and wind tunnel tests, at Mach 3.0 conditions. The motivation was firstly to gain insight into the supersonic flow properties of the proposed vehicle and secondly to conduct a detailed study of the current CFD methodology for capturing supersonic flows. A 1/60th scale model of the SPRInT vehicle was tested numerically and experimentally and the findings compared well. Theoretical estimates of important parameters are also made. Results showed that the vehicle displayed many of the flow features common to blunt bodies in compressible flow and that the shock wave stand off distance is comparatively small which may have detrimental heating effects. Pressure measurements were used to estimate the coefficient of drag for the vehicle.