Hypersonic flow past power law shaped leading edges at zero incidence is investigated for a range of freestream Mach number from 5 to 12. The simulations were performed by using a Direct Simulation Monte Carlo Method. A method that has demonstrated to yield excellent comparison with experimental data, and that properly accounts for thermal nonequilibrium effects that arise near the leading edge and that are especially important at high Mach number. The work is motivated by interest in assessing the overall performance of power-law shaped leading edges in order to consider them as possible candidates for blunting geometries of hypersonic leading edges. The results presented highlight the sensitivity of the heat transfer coe\ub1cient, the total drag coefficient, and the shock wave standoff distance to changes on the freestream Mach number.
展开▼