INVESTIGATION OF REAL-GAS AND VISCOUS EFFECTS ON THE AERODYNAMIC CHARACTERISTICS OF A 40° HALF-CONE WITH SUGGESTED CORRELATIONS FOR THE SHUTTLE ORBITER

摘要

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate parameters that might he used to correlate shuttle orbiter aerodynamic data to be used in extrapolating from wind-tunnel to flight conditions. Preliminary calculations indicate that the lee-side forces will have an insignificant influence on the aerodynamic charac¬teristics of the orbiter for moderate angle-of-attack entries;therefore, this work is focused on phenomena which have an overriding influence on windward forces, namely, real-gas (equilibrium and nonequilibrium) and viscous-interaction effects. Analytically determined flow fields previously obtained on 40° blunted cones were used as a data source to evaluate various correlation parameters. Inviscid effects were found to be the dominant contributor to the aerodynamic coefficients (1+0° half-cone) in the altitude range of 64 to 76.2 km. The most suitable correlation of the aerodynamic forces on these cones is based on local dynamic pressure and local Mach number.