Aerodynamically oriented thermal protection system (TPS) for hypersonic aerospace vehicles which is based on a suitable spike—forebody configuration. The conical forebody semi-angle is much smaller than the cone-shaped spike tip semi-angle. As a result a separated recirculating flow is established in the region after the spike tip and a series of expansion waves are formed near the forebody—main body intersection. The separated recirculating flow shields the forebody from heat following the shock wave, and the expansion waves prevent high temperatures in the area of the forebody—main body intersection and beyond. Due to the spike tip large shock wave angle the whole of the aerospace vehicle lies within the spike tip shock wave cone and, thus, shock wave—shock wave interactions are avoided. The proposed spike—forebody configuration substantially reduces aerodynamic heating and, therefore, a conventional TPS with the associated mass penalty, and safety, reliability, maintenance and cost drawbacks is avoided.
AERODYNAMICALLY ORIENTED THERMAL PROTECTION SYSTEM OF HYPERSONIC VEHICLES
2017-01-26
Patent
Electronic Resource
English
Thermal Protection Systems for Hypersonic Transport Vehicles
SAE Technical Papers | 1990
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