Aero-thermal analysis of lifting body configurations in hypersonic flow

The aero-thermal analysis of a hypersonic vehicle is of fundamental interest for designing its thermal protection system. The aero-thermal environment predictions over several critical regions of the hypothesized lifting body vehicle, including the stagnation region of the nose-cap, cylindrically swept leading edges, fuselage-upper, and fuselage-lower surfaces, are discussed. The drag (Λ=70°) and temperature (Λ=80°) minimized sweepback angles are considered in the configuration design of the two hypothesized lifting body shape hypersonic vehicles. The main aim of the present study is to analyze and compare the aero-thermal characteristics of these two lifting body configurations at same heat capacity. Accordingly, a Computational Fluid Dynamics simulation has been carried out at Mach number (M∞=7), H=35 km altitude with zero Angle of Attack. Finally, the material selection for thermal protection system based on these predictions and current methodology is described.