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Aerodynamic Design, Characterization and Flight Performance of RLV-TD


Affiliations
1 Aeronautics Entity, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Indian Space Research Organisation, Thiruvananthapuram 695 022, India
 

Complete aerodynamic design and characterization of ascent as well as descent phases of Reusable Launch Vehicle-Technology Demonstrator (RLV-TD) have been obtained through thousands of wind tunnel tests, flow simulations using various computational fluid dynamic codes and tailor-made engineering codes. The evolution of the ascent and descent designs, aerodynamic characterization and flight performance is presented in this article. The flight data comparison of aerodynamic coefficients, control surface loads, pressure distribution and external acoustic levels with preflight data is good and therefore, providing confidence in using the ground-based data generation techniques along with defined dispersion bands. Some of the minor deviations in the performance observed in flight were resolved/understood in the post-flight analysis, whereas few effects observed in flight need further understanding.

Keywords

Aerodynamic Design and Characterization, Ascent and Descent Phases, Flight Performance, Reusable Launch Vehicle, Wing Body.
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  • Aerodynamic Design, Characterization and Flight Performance of RLV-TD

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Authors

G. Vidya
Aeronautics Entity, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Indian Space Research Organisation, Thiruvananthapuram 695 022, India
K. Manokaran
Aeronautics Entity, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Indian Space Research Organisation, Thiruvananthapuram 695 022, India
V. R. Ganesan
Aeronautics Entity, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Indian Space Research Organisation, Thiruvananthapuram 695 022, India
M. Prasath
Aeronautics Entity, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Indian Space Research Organisation, Thiruvananthapuram 695 022, India
Sundeepkumar Epuri
Aeronautics Entity, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Indian Space Research Organisation, Thiruvananthapuram 695 022, India
P. Balasubramanian
Aeronautics Entity, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Indian Space Research Organisation, Thiruvananthapuram 695 022, India
C. Babu
Aeronautics Entity, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Indian Space Research Organisation, Thiruvananthapuram 695 022, India
B. Venkatasubrahmanyam
Aeronautics Entity, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Indian Space Research Organisation, Thiruvananthapuram 695 022, India
Priyankar Bandyopadhyay
Aeronautics Entity, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Indian Space Research Organisation, Thiruvananthapuram 695 022, India

Abstract


Complete aerodynamic design and characterization of ascent as well as descent phases of Reusable Launch Vehicle-Technology Demonstrator (RLV-TD) have been obtained through thousands of wind tunnel tests, flow simulations using various computational fluid dynamic codes and tailor-made engineering codes. The evolution of the ascent and descent designs, aerodynamic characterization and flight performance is presented in this article. The flight data comparison of aerodynamic coefficients, control surface loads, pressure distribution and external acoustic levels with preflight data is good and therefore, providing confidence in using the ground-based data generation techniques along with defined dispersion bands. Some of the minor deviations in the performance observed in flight were resolved/understood in the post-flight analysis, whereas few effects observed in flight need further understanding.

Keywords


Aerodynamic Design and Characterization, Ascent and Descent Phases, Flight Performance, Reusable Launch Vehicle, Wing Body.

References





DOI: https://doi.org/10.18520/cs%2Fv114%2Fi01%2F48-63