Flowfield Computations Over the Space Shuttle Orbiter with a Proposed Canard at a Mach Number of 5.8 and 50 Degrees Angle of Attack
Abstract
Advances in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) capabilities in the last decade have allowed engineers to better analyze cases of hypersonic flight The Space Shuttle Orbiter has increased over 30,000 pounds in weight since its initial design in 1974, resulting in limitations on its operational capability. One of these limitations is the allowable forward center of gravity location resulting from lateral-directional and longitudinal controllability constraints. One method to relax this limitation is to employ the use of a canard. A canard can produce the additional nose-up pitching moment to relax the center of gravity constraint as well as alleviate the need for large , lift-destroying elevon deflections required to maintain the high angles of attack required for effective hypersonic flight. A configuration is developed using known Orbiter aerodynamic data and a canard computational grid is generated. The Orbiter- Canard configuration is analyzed at a Mach number of 5.8 and angle of attack of 50 degrees using flowfields generated by the OVERFLOW three-dimensional computer code. Comparison is made with a baseline solution and results are presented. Space Shuttle, CFD, Canard, Hypersonic Aerodynamics, Computational Fluid Dynamics.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 1993
- Accession Number
- ADA258058
Entities
People
- William H. Reuter
Organizations
- Naval Postgraduate School