A concern that ingestion of hot boundary-layer gas past a small, localized seal failure in the cove between the Space Shuttle wing and elevon might threaten unprotected elevon structures led to wind-tunnel tests to define cove environment as a function of leak area. The tests were conducted in the Langley 8-foot high-temperatures structures tunnel using a full-scale representation of the Space Shuttle wing-elevon juncture on the reentry surface. Pressure and heating rates were obtained for both attached and separated turbulent flows on the wing at the cove entrance. Results indicated that (1) for attached turbulent flow on the wing, cove heating progressively increased in severity independent of leak aspect ratio as leak area increased to 100 percent of cove entrance area and (2), for separated turbulent flow over the wing, cove environment was intolerably severe.
Pressure and heat-transfer distributions in a simulated wing-elevon cove with variable leakage at a free-stream Mach number of 6.9
Aerospace Sciences Meeting ; 1978 ; Huntsville, AL
1978-01-01
Conference paper
No indication
English
Elevon-Cove Pressure Fluctuations in a Quiet Mach-6 Flow
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