Open Access
Subscription Access
Aerodynamic Design, Characterization and Flight Performance of RLV-TD
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.
User
Font Size
Information
- Ashok, V. and Babu, T. C., Parallelization of Navier–Stokes code on a cluster of workstations. In Proceedings of the 6th International High Performance Computing Conference, HiPCC’99, Springer, Berlin, 1999, pp. 349–353.
- Manokaran, K., Vidya, G. and Goyal, V. K., A simple procedure for computation of aerodynamic coefficients with control surface deflection for a winged RLV. In Proceedings of a Symposium on Applied Aerodynamics and Design of Aerospace Vehicle (SAROD) 2005. Recent Trends in Aerospace Design and Optimization, Hyderabad, 8–9 December 2005, pp. 191–202.
- Yuvaraj, R. et al., Challenges in solid booster separation dynamics analysis for a winged body. J. Aerosp. Sci. Technol., 2017, 69(3A), 502–514.
- Surber, T. E. and Olsen, D. C., Space shuttle orbiter aerodynamic development. J. Spacecraft, 1978, 15(1), 40–47.
- Brauckmann, G. J., X-34 vehicle aerodynamic characteristics. J. Spacecr. Robot., 1999, 36(2), 229–239.
- Iliff, K. W. and Shafer, M. F., Space Shuttle Hypersonic Aerodynamic and Aerothermodynamic Flight Research and the Comparison to Ground Test Results, NASA-TM 4499, June 1993.
- Desikan, S. L. N., Saravanan, R., Subramanian, S., Sivaramakrishnan, A. E. and Pandian, S., Investigation of supersonic jet interaction with hypersonic cross flow. ASME J. Fluid Eng., 2015, 137/101101-1, doi:10.1115/1.4030393.
- Vidya, G., Manokaran, K. and Jeyajothiraj, P., Aerodynamic interference effect on a winged body due to supersonic lateral jet in cross flow. In Symposium on Applied Aerodynamics and Design of Aerospace Vehicle (SAROD 2015), Thiruvananthapuram, 3–5 December 2015.
- Vidya, G. et al., Aerodynamic design, characterization and parameter estimation of RLV-TD from flight data. J. Aerosp. Sci. Technol., 2017, 69(3A), 423–439.
- Young, J. C. and Underwood, J. M., Development of aerodynamic uncertainties for the space shuttle orbiter. J. Spacecraft, 1983, 20(6), 513–517.
- Dougherty, N. S. and Guest, S. H., A correlation of scale model and flight aeroacoustic data for the space shuttle vehicle, AIAA-84-2351, AIAA/NASA 9th Aeroacoustics Conference, Williamsburg, Virginia, 15–17 October 1984.
Abstract Views: 394
PDF Views: 164