• Advances in aircraft and spacecraft science
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.487-501
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• 2017

The main purpose of the paper is to analyze effect of geometrical parameters of the reentry capsules such as radius of the spherical cap, shoulder radius, back shell inclination angle and overall length on the flow field characteristics. The numerical simulation with viscous flow past ARD (Atmospheric Reentry Demonstrator), Soyuz (Russian) and OREX (Orbital Reentry EXperimental) reentry capsules for freestream Mach numbers range of 2.0-5.0 is carried out by solving time-dependent, axisymmetric, compressible laminar Navier-Stokes equations. These reentry capsules appear as bell, head light and saucer in shape. The flow field features around the reentry capsules such as bow shock wave, sonic line, expansion fan and recirculating flow region are well captured by the present numerical simulations. A low pressure is observed immediately downstream of the base region of the capsule which can be attributed to fill-up in the growing space between the shock wave and the reentry module. The back shell angle and the radius of the shoulder over the capsule are having a significant effect on the wall pressure distribution. The effects of geometrical parameters of the reentry capsules will useful input for the calculation of ballistic coefficient of the reentry module.

• Advances in aircraft and spacecraft science
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.177-194
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• 2024

The objective of this paper is to compute entire flow field over Apollo-II, Aerospace Reentry Demonstrator (ARD), Orbital Experiment (OREX) with sharp shoulder and rounded shape shoulder and Space Recovery Experiment (SRE) at different flare-cone half-angle of 20° and 35°. This paper addresses numerical solutions of the compressible three-dimensional Euler equations on hexahedral meshes for a freestream Mach 6 and at an angle of incidence 5°. Furthermore, spatial discretization is accomplished by a cell centred finite volume formulation solution and advanced in time by an explicit multi-stage Runge-Kutta method. The flow field characteristics, distribution of surface pressure coefficient and Mach number on fore-body and aft-body are presented as a function of the geometrical parameters of many reentry capsules. The surface pressure variation is numerically integrated to obtain the aerodynamic drag and compared well with impact theory. The present numerical study has observed the significant dependence of the blunt body and the aft-body geometry of the vehicle and can be used to study atmospheric conditions during re-entry trajectory. The numerical analysis reveals the significant influence of capsule geometry on the flow characteristics of the mechanism of upstream and structure of the flow near the wake region and aerodynamic drag coefficient.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.47 no.6
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• pp.414-421
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• 2019

In this paper, thermomechanical coupled analysis of carbon/phenolic composites structures in reentry environment was performed. The interface of thermomechanical coupled analysis was constructed using commercial software. The governing equations of temperature and displacement fields were considered to simulate change of physical behavior due to pyrolysis and ablation effects. The results of thermomechanical coupled analysis were compared with the results of ablation test using arc-heated wind tunnel. Also, the structural stability of reentry capsule was analyzed using the analysis interface. The excellent ablation characteristics and thermal protection effects of the carbon/phenolic composites were confirmed and the constructed analysis interface can be effectively used to perform thermal protection system design.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.23-32
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• 2016

Various studies have been conducted for drag reduction of a high-speed vehicle by injecting counterflow jet from its nose cone. In this study, in order to obtain baseline data and key parameters for drag reduction method, the counterflow jet study of the USA is reviewed and summarized. The nose cone shapes of each study are hemisphere cylinder, truncated cone, and reentry capsule, and their test conditions are summarized accordingly. Key parameters for drag reduction are jet mach number, mass flow rate, and pressure ratio. Even though drag reduction effects show various results according to given test conditions, it is found that the drag reduction effect reaches up to 40~50%.