Aerodynamic Heating around an Inflatable Vehicle during a Reentry Demonstration Flight by a Sounding Rocket

摘要

A reentry flight demonstration of an advanced reentry vehicle was carried out using a sounding rocket. The vehicle is equipped with a flexible (membrane) aeroshell deployed by an inflatable torus structure. During the reentry flight, temperatures at several locations of a backside of a flexible aeroshell and a sidewall of a capsule were measured by means of embedded thermocouples. Behavior of aerodynamic heating of the vehicle is investigated along with the measured temperature history, combining the numerical prediction in which the numerical flow simulation and the heating estimation based on it were conducted. In the flow field simulation, not only laminar flow but also turbulent flow were assumed, and modification of the flexible aero-shell were considered. It was found that the measured temperature data shows a reasonable agreement with the predicted one if the flow field near the membrane aeroshell of the vehicle is assumed to be turbulent flow.