Shefex I+II Post-Flight Analysis: Starting Point for a Virtual Flight Test Environment

摘要

In order to advance hypersonic space transportation such that it becomes an affordable and reliable routine operation as the air transportation of today, essential improvements, far beyond current technologies are required to fulfill mission and safety constraints and to ensure economic viability. Due to the significant technical progress in computer technology and computational fluid mechanics more and more strategies for the direct interdisciplinary coupling between fluid mechanics and structure mechanics or aerodynamics and flight mechanics are developed. Within the design process of hypersonic aircraft a direct coupling between fluid mechanics and flight mechanics, structure and control enables an immediate analysis of a projected vehicle. In future also the qualification to fulfill e.g. ECSS standards might be supported, which could significantly reduce the effort of flight qualification. For hypersonic vehicles this is of special interest, as the ground test options are limited and demonstration of full vehicles in flight is risky, expensive and time consuming. The present paper introduces the numerical environment and discusses selected results of the Shefex I and Shefex II post-flight analysis to proof the approach and to underline its usability for future designs. Finally, an outlook is given how the target of a "numerical flight test" which additionally requires the control of a vehicle can be reached and shortcomings to be overcome are addressed.